Dynamic Response of Rigid Pavements Due to Moving Vehicle Load with Acceleration

Abstract

Dynamic response of rigid pavement subjected to moving vehicle load with variable velocity (accelerating or decelerating) is investigated in the paper. Rigid pavement is modeled by an infinite beam on viscoelastic foundation. Double Fourier Transform and inverse Fourier Transform technique and Convolution Theorem are employed to obtain the dual integral solution for the dynamic deflections of beam. A numerical calculation has been performed by Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to illustrate the dynamic responses of the pavement under different moving conditions of vehicle. The effect of acceleration and deceleration of a moving wheel on the dynamic deflections of rigid pavement is discussed in detail. Numerical example results show that the velocity of the moving vehicle has greater effect on the maximum dynamic deflection of pavement when compared with the acceleration and deceleration, which has less effect on the maximum dynamic deflection. The latter mainly has less influence on the position and the timing of the maximum.