Theoretical Road Damage Due to Dynamic Tyre Forces of Heavy Vehicles Part 2: Simulated Damage Caused by a Tandem-Axle Vehicle

Abstract

The literature relating to road surface failure and design is briefly reviewed and the conventional methods for assessing the road damaging effects of dynamic tyre forces are examined. A new time domain technique for analysing dynamic tyre forces and four associated road damage criteria are presented. The tyre force criteria are used to examine the road damaging characteristics of a simple tandem-axle vehicle model for a range of speed and road roughness conditions. It is concluded that for the proposed criteria, the theoretical service life of road surfaces that are prone to fatigue failure may be reduced significantly by the dynamic component of wheel forces. The damage done to approximately five per cent of the road surface area during the passage of a theoretical model vehicle at typical highway speeds may be increased by as much as four times.