Simulation of pavement response to tire pressure and shape of contact area

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of tire footprint and contact stress distribution under various combinations of tire pressures and tire loads on the pavement response through 3-D finite element static analysis with linear elastic material model. Analyzed footprints include a field-measured footprint and two cases of simplified ones. Our results indicate that factors including tire load, the distribution of contact stress, and the shape of footprint will affect the tensile strains at the bottom of the asphalt concrete layer as well as the compressive strains on the top of the subgrade. However, the compressive strains on the top of the subgrade are more sensitive to tire load than the shape of footprint. The research demonstrated that pavement response analysis could be carried out using field-measured footprints instead of the simplified approximations. Reduced tire pressure was effective in reducing the tensile strains at the bottom of asphalt concrete layer, but did not decrease significantly the compressive strains at the top of the subgrade.Résumé : Le présent article étudie l'effet de l'empreinte des pneus et de la distribution de la contrainte de contact selon diverses combinaisons de pressions et de charges de pneus sur la réponse de la chaussée au moyen d'une analyse statique tridimensionnelle par éléments finis selon une modélisation élastique linéaire du matériau. Les empreintes analysées comprennent une empreinte mesurée sur le terrain et deux cas d'empreintes simplifiées. Nos résultats indiquent que les facteurs telles la charge du pneu, la distribution de la contrainte de contact et la forme de l'empreinte auront un effet sur la contrainte de tension au bas de la couche de béton bitumineux et sur les contraintes de déformation sur le dessus de la couche de fondation. Toutefois, les contraintes de déformation sur le dessus de la couche de fondation sont plus sensibles à la charge du pneu qu'à la forme de l'empreinte. La recherche a démontré que l'analyse de la réponse de la chaussée pourrait être réalisée en utilisant des empreintes mesurées sur le terrain plutôt que des approximations simplifiées. Une pression de pneu réduite a permis de réduire les contraintes de tension au bas de la couche de béton bitumineux, mais n'a pas réduit de manière significative les contraintes de déformation sur le dessus de la couche de fondation. [Traduit par la Rédaction] Mots-clés : contrainte de contact pneu-chaussée, empreinte de pneus, pression de pneu, réponse de la chaussée, chaussée en béton bitumineux, contrainte, analyse par éléments finis.

Smart Computing Techniques for Predicting Soil Compaction Criteria under Realistic Field Conditions

“…Arvidsson et al (2011) indicated that increasing the contact area between the tire and the field ground, is able to reduce the dry bulk density and increases the saturated hydraulic conductivity due to the high pressure dispersion generated under the double tires compared to the single tires, which is inversely proportional to the contact area. Also, Liu & Shalaby (2013) found that the tire pressure played a role in the compaction that the tire applied to the ground, as the soil pressure decreased by 15% under the center of the tire when the tire pressure was reduced from 690 kPa to 345 kPa. Marra et al (2018) explained in a study of the impact or groove depths generated after the tractor has passed, where it is possible to express the soil pressure generated from different tires by scanning and analyzing images of the depths of the resulting cracks or grooves at the same number of times the tractor is passed.…”

Influence of Modulus of Base Layer on The Strain Distribution for Asphalt Pavement

“…First of all, a large number of previous studies (Park & Lytton, 2004;Al-Hadidy & Tan, 2009;Huang et al, 2011;Abu Al-Rub et al, 2012;Cortes et al, 2012;Maina et al, 2012;Liu & Shalaby, 2013;Aarabi & Tabatabaei, 2018;Li & Hao, 2020) indicated that the maximum critical strains in the AC layer always appears under the loading zone, so the in-plane coordinate of the calculated point used in the following analysis in this paper is located at the center of one of the dual tires.…”

Review of Research on Tire–Pavement Contact Behavior

“…Researchers have characterized tire-pavement contact behavior through tire-pavement contact characteristics [2,28]. Tire-pavement contact characteristics are mainly geometric characteristics defined according to the contact area and mechanical characteristics defined according to the stress distribution [29,30]. The definition, understanding, and application of tire-pavement contact characteristics vary among researchers because of differences in the study subjects and methods.…”

“…This can simplify mechanical calculations and reflects tirepavement contact behavior to a certain extent, and is widely used in pavement design [32]. However, measurements and modeling data show that the vertical stress distribution at the tire-pavement interface is not uniform, and the contact area is not regularly circular [29] or rectangular [33,34]. Tire pattern and pavement texture influences are ignored in this assumption, so researchers have conducted extensive research on contact geometric characteristics [35,36].…”