Dynamic responses of the pavement-unsaturated poroelastic ground system to a moving traffic load

Abstract

The vibration of a coupled pavement and unsaturated ground system subjected to a moving traffic load is semi-analytically studied. The pavement is modeled as an infinite Kirchhoff plate, and the unsaturated ground is presented by an unsaturated poroelastic half-space. The traffic load of a truck is simplified as a combination of 10 rectangular loads. The governing equations of the pavement-ground system are solved in the frequency domain using double Fourier transform. Subsequently, the results in the time domain are obtained by fast inverse Fourier transform. The effects of saturation of unsaturated soil, drainage condition, truck speed, axle load, pavement thickness, and elastic modulus on the dynamic responses of the system are studied. It is discovered that the increase in the saturation of unsaturated soil results in significant increases in the magnitudes of vertical displacement, acceleration, and pore air pressure. Additionally, the effects of other parameters significantly affect the dynamic responses of pavement-unsaturated poroelastic ground systems.