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When it comes to traffic, the pavement engineer is interested in axle loads, number of
load repetitions, the contact area and vehicle speed. The damaging effect from each axle
can be determined by use of equivalent loads. It is important to predict the future traffic
for use in design of the pavement. The contact area of the tyre is a function of the load,
tyre pressure tyre stiffness and tyre wear and is normally assumed to be circular. The
speed of the vehicle is important when considering the reaction/behaviour of the load
bearing material. Materials such as asphalt are known to be elasto-visco-plastic and their
behaviour is much dependent on temperature and loading time. For design purposes,
vehicles with 3,000 Kg and above of unladen weight are considered.
As for the traffic data, the following needs to be known by the pavement engineer:
Average Daily Traffic (ADT), Average Daily Truck Traffic (ADTT), Traffic mixture
(number of vehicles in each class), Average weight of the vehicles in each class and Lane
Distribution Factor. Two items of data are required concerning traffic loading; the
average speed of commercial vehicles and the cumulative number of standard axles for
the design life. The speed has to be estimated from knowledge of the road situation and
should err on the slow side if uncertainties exist, as this will produce a lower stiffness for
the asphalt.
Wheel Load
a) Magnitude of wheel load and tyre pressure
The load from the wheel is transmitted to the pavement through the rubber tyres. The
wheel load from a rubber tyre is distributed on a large area, depending upon the tyre
pressure. The tyre pressures on commercial vehicles vary from 0.5 to 0.7 MN/m2 (70 - 100
psi). A value of 0.5 MN/m2 is typical. Tyre pressures are much more important in the
design of airfield pavements. A much higher tyre pressure, in the range between 1.0 and
1.5 MN/m2 (150 – 200 psi) is used in airfield design. The spacing of axles also affects the
stresses induced. Tandem axles are common on modern road transport vehicles. The
AASHO Road test has shown that an 18,000 lb single axle load is equivalent in its
damaging effect to a 32,000 lb tandem axle load. Similarly, a single load of 22,400 lbs had
about the same damaging effect as a 40,000 lb tandem axle load. Repetition of wheel loads
is very important in causing pavement distress. It is, therefore, necessary to select the
design and assess the total number of repetitions of axle loads during the pavement life.