Abstract
Falling weight deflectometer (FWD) has been widely adopted to generate a transient loading on pavement to simulate a moving wheel on the road. Although damping effects influence structural responses in dynamic conditions, it was usually neglected in pavement evaluations. This study presented the pavement responses of finite element analysis of FWD tests on various types of subgrade soils. The results showed that subgrade damping significantly influences pavement deflections of FWD tests. Among the types of soils, the analysis results revealed that gravel subgrade has the least damping effect on dynamic deflections. Deflection velocity was found to be crucial to interpret the importance of soil damping in FWD tests. The simulated pavement responses of the FWD test are different from that caused by a moving vehicle.