Pavement Damage as Related to Tires, Pressures, Axle Loads, and Configurations

Abstract

Dual radial tires and wide base radial single tires were tested in the laboratory under three levels of inflation pressures and axial loads. The measured characteristics of the tires were gross contact area, net area, tire deflection, and contact pressures. The distributions of contact pressures were used in a theoretical analysis to evaluate the flexible pavement performance related parameter. The response of two flexible pavement structures was investigated in terms of the tensile strains at the bottom of the asphalt layer. In the second phase of this research, two full scale pavement sections were instrumented using strain gages to measure the strains at the bottom of the asphalt concrete layer. The data analysis presented in this paper shows the effect of varying the tire type, tire inflation pressure, and axle load and configuration on the response of flexible pavements. The results of the two studies showed that the wide base single tires are more damaging than the dual tires under all combinations of the test variables.