Probabilistic Gross Vehicle Weights and Associated Axle Loads for Military Vehicles in Bridge Evaluation and Code Calibration

Abstract

Military vehicles frequently use civilian bridges. The loading effects of military vehicles, both wheeled and tracked, are specific and different than those of civilian vehicles in normal traffic. Calibration to determine appropriate load factors for military loading of civilian bridges has not been fully performed and the corresponding levels of safety have not been quantified. This is partially due to the lack of probabilistic information of the gross vehicle weights and corresponding axle loads of military vehicles while operating in real-world conditions. This paper quantifies probabilistically the gross vehicle weight and axle loads for three military vehicles in use by NATO, each of which is representative of: military transport vehicles; armoured personnel carriers; and main battle tanks. A general means are proposed to quantify the probabilistic gross vehicle weight of military vehicles on the basis of maximum nominal payload as a proportion of the total nominal vehicle weight. Based on observed probabilistic gross vehicle weight of military vehicles, it is recommended to differentiate between military transport and military fighting vehicles as different categories of vehicles in bridge evaluation.