Modeling and dynamic analysis of a vehicle-flexible pavement coupled system subjected to road surface excitation

Abstract

Increased road traffic combined with heavy vehicle loads leads to deterioration of pavements and reduces the life span of the paved roads. As a result, large amounts of financial resources are spent each year to improve and maintain road infrastructure around the world. Vehicle dynamics and pavement dynamics are strongly coupled through their contact points. This research focuses on the dynamic analysis of pavement-vehicle interaction system and the effect of coupling action on the response. The system response due to the moving vehicular load on rough road supported by a linear visco-elastic foundation was investigated. The vehicle is modeled as a two-degree-of-freedom quarter-vehicle model, and the pavement-foundation system is described by a simply supported Euler-Bernoulli beam resting on Pasternak foundation, while the tire is coupled to the flexible pavement with a single point contact. Galerkin method was used to develop a system of governing differential equations for a coupled system in the time domain. Direct numerical integration method using Newmark-β based on linear average acceleration method was then used to solve the governing equations and evaluate the response of the coupled system. The results were validated with previous research works and compared with conventional uncoupled systems. Finally, the effects of parameters such as vehicle speed, road roughness, soil stiffness and suspension damping on the responses were investigated.