Research of multi-axles effects on the flexible pavement based on the viscoelastic continuum damage model

Abstract

Damages caused by the multi-axles load on the pavement are more complex, due to the interaction between axles. To investigate influences of the multi-axles load on the bottom-up crack of the flexible pavement, the equivalent factor (EF) that represents damage ratios of multi-axles to single-axle based on the viscoelastic continuum damage model was proposed. Through the finite element method, influences of temperature, pavement thickness, and axle configuration on the EF were analyzed. Results suggest that the asphalt mixture with smaller m-value is more likely to have smaller EF. With the increase of temperature and asphalt layer thickness, EF of dual-axles load increases but EF of triple-axles load decreases. Besides, the wheelbase is the only factor of the axle configuration that has remarkable impacts on the EF. Making the distance between the maximum compressive and tensile stress close to the wheelbase can reduce the damage of multi-axle load.

KEYWORDS:

• Multi-axles load
• equivalent factor
• pavement damage
• VECD model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This paper is part of the research work of National Key Research and Development Project (grant number SQ2020YFA070207). The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 51878164 and 51922030), Southeast University ‘Zhongying Young Scholars' Project, Department of Transportation of Shandong Province (grant number 2018B51), Jiangsu Highway Engineering Maintenance Technology Co., Ltd. and Huai’an Highway Administration Office. The authors would also like to acknowledge the financial support provided by Bureau of Transportation Construction of Jiangsu.