The influence of truck speed on pavement defects

Abstract

ABSTRACT The response of asphalt material depends on the rate of loading and varies from elastic to plastic. Therefore, the behaviour of flexible pavement would also be different along the entire length of a road because of truck speed changes due to the existence of police checkpoints, bus stations, speed bumps, intersections, horizontal and vertical curves, and climbing lanes. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of truck speed on the performance of flexible pavement. Thus, analyses were conducted for various truck speeds (1–75 km/hr) on three different pavement structures and three traffic levels using AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design 2.5.5 for the local conditions of Izmir, Turkey. The analysis results of the study manifested that a reduction in traffic speed (75–1 km/hr) on a road resulted in higher pavement distress. According to the results, reducing truck speed from 25 to 1 km/hr resulted in a rapid increase in AC rutting, alligator cracking and top-down cracking by 13.3 mm, 10.6% and 1473.8 m/km, respectively. It is expected that the outcomes of this study would promote the local calibration of the mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide (MEPDG) and pavement design in Turkey and the region.