Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Traffic Loading Part 2

Dr. K. Sudhakar Reddy

Professor, Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
India
Email: ksreddy@civil.iitkgp.ernet.in
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Traffic Load considerations in Design

• Pavements of highways and airports carry
different types of vehicles
• vehicles carry different magnitudes of loads
• loads occur repeatedly
• How to take these variations into account in
designing pavements ?
• Which vehicle, how many repetitions, to
design the pavement for ?
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Load consideration in Design

• Three different approaches
• Fixed Traffic
• Fixed Vehicle
• Variable Traffic and Vehicle
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Fixed Traffic Approach for Design

• Heaviest anticipated vehicle is the main concern
for design
• Number of repetitions not considered
• Pavements are designed for a single wheel load
• Multiple wheels converted to an Equivalent Single
Wheel Load (ESWL)
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Fixed Traffic Approach for Design

• Used for design of airport pavements and for
highway pavements carrying heavy wheel loads
but less traffic volumes
• Not very commonly used
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Fixed Vehicle Approach for Design

• Design is governed by the number of repetitions
of a standard vehicle or axle
• 18-kip (80 kN) single axle is considered to be the
standard axle load
• Axles that are not either single or not equal to
80kN are converted into equivalent standard
(80kN) axle load using Equivalent Axle load Factor
(EALF)
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Fixed Vehicle Approach for Design

• Multiplying the repetitions of a given axle load by
the EALF gives the equivalent number of 80kN
axle load repetitions
• Sum of the equivalent repetitions obtained for all
the axle loads anticipated (during the design
period) is used as design parameter
• Most design methods follow this approach
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Variable Vehicle and Traffic

• Variations in loads and repetitions of each
individual load are considered important for
design
• No need to deal traffic either in terms of ESWL or
ESAL
• Normally used with procedures adopting
cumulative damage approach
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Equivalent Single Wheel Load (ESWL)

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Equivalent Single Wheel Load (ESWL)

Defined as the load on a single tire that will cause an
equal magnitude of a pre selected parameter (stress,
strain, deflection, or distress) at a given location
within a specific pavement system to that resulting
from a multiple – wheel load at the same location
within the pavement structure.
Equivalence in terms of a selected parameter (for a
selected pavement and selected location)
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ESWL – Parameters for Equivalence

• Equal vertical stress
• Equal vertical deflection
• Equal tensile strain
• Equal contact pressure
• Equivalent contact radius
(these parameters can be theoretically calculated
or experimentally determined as specified in the
design methodology)
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ESWL – Equal Vertical Stress Concept

Pd Pd
sd
d

d/2

2sd
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ESWL – Equal Vertical Stress Concept

• Equal maximum subgrade vertical stress
• Based on approximation of stress distribution in one-
layer systems
• For a pavement thickness less than d/2, no stress
overlap. Hence, ESWL will be Pd
• At depths of approximately 2Sd, the effect of overlap is
such that it is equivalent to stress caused by 2Pd.
• For intermediate depths, it is assumed that a linear
relationship exists between load and thickness plotted
on a log-log scale
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ESWL – Equal Vertical Stress Concept

ESWL (log scale)
2 Pd
P
Pd

Z= d/2 Z Z = 2sd
Depth Z (log scale)
log (ESWL) = log Pd + 0.301 log (2 Z/d)
log (4 Sd/d)
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ESWL – Equal Vertical Stress - Example

20kN 20kN 100

300

E1 = E2 200mm
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ESWL – Equal Vertical Stress - Example

20kN 20kN 100

300

50
E1 = E2 200mm
600

Subgrade
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ESWL – Equal Vertical Stress - Example

ESWL (log scale)
40
?
20

50 200 600
Depth Z log (scale)
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ESWL – Equal Vertical Deflection Concept

• ESWL – Single wheel having the same contact
radius as one of the dual wheels and results in a
maximum deflection equal to that caused by
multiple wheels
(some approaches use equal contact pressure
concept)
• Deflection at the interface of pavement and
subgrade
• Methods available for Elastic Half Space (single
layer) and two layer systems
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ESWL –Vertical Deflection – Single Layer

P P a ESWL
S

E1, m1 h E1 = E2 h
Max. Defl m1= 0.5

E2, m2 E2
m2 = 0.5
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ESWL –Vertical Deflection – Single Layer

For single Layer System, deflection at any depth
and radial distance is given by
D = p.a.F/(E)
where D is the deflection at depth ‘z’ and radial
distance (measured from the centre of the load) ‘r’
and ‘E’ is the elastic modulus of the pavement
(subgrade modulus in case of a two-layer system)
and
F is deflection factor, a function of ‘r’ and ‘z’
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ESWL –Vertical Deflection – Single Layer

1.5
r/a = 0

r/a
F

Z/a

0 2 4 6 8 10 12
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ESWL –Vertical Deflection Concept

DESWL = pESWL.a.FESWL/(Esub)
D Multiple = pmultiple. a. Fmax/(Esub)
DESWL = D Multiple
pESWL. FESWL = pmultiple . Fmax
Pmultiple known
Fmax function of wheel configuration (r) and depth (z)
FESWL a function of ‘h’ (and r = 0)
Hence pESWL and ESWL can be determined
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ESWL –Vertical Deflection – 2-layer System

For 2 Layer System, deflection at interface at any
radial distance is given by
D = p.a.F/(Esubgrade)
F is the interface deflection factor, a function of
‘radial distance (r)’ and ‘pavement thickness (h)’
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ESWL –Vertical Deflection – 2-layer System
0 F 1.5
0

2 r/a = 0

h/a 4
6 r/a
E1/E2 =
8

10
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ESWL –Vertical Deflection Concept

DESWL = pESWL.a.FESWL/(Esub)
D Multiple = pmultiple. a. Fmax/(Esub)
DESWL = D Multiple
pESWL. FESWL = pmultiple . Fmax
Pmultiple known
Fmax function of wheel configuration (r) and depth (z)
FESWL a function of ‘pavement thickness (h)’ (and r = 0)
Hence pESWL and ESWL can be determined
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ESWL –Vertical Deflection – Example

20kN 20kN 100

300

E1 = 250 MPa
m1 = 0.5 200

E2 = 50 MPa
m2 = 0.5
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ESWL –Vertical Deflection – Example

20kN 20kN 100 Explore Points 1, 2 and
300
3 for max deflection
A B
Point –1
200 Load –A, r/a = 0/100 = 0
(r/a =0, z/a = 2) F = 0.5
1 2 3
Load-B, r/a = 300/100=3
E1/E2 = 250/50 = 5 (r/a =3, z/a = 2) F = 0.28
Total F = 0.5+.28 = 0.78
Z/a = 200/100 = 2 Point –2
Point –3 A (r/a =1, z/a=2) F = 0.45
A (r/a =1.5, z/a=2) F = 0.4 B (r/a = 2, z/a= 2) F = 0.36
B (r/a =1.5, z/a=2) F = 0.4 Total F = 0.45+.36 = 0.81
Total F = 0.45+.36 = 0.80
Fmax = 0.81
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ESWL –Vertical Deflection – Example

20kN 20kN 100 pmultiple = 20000/(p*1002)
300 = 0.6364 MPa
A B
pESWL. FESWL = pmultiple . Fmax

200 pESWL X 0.5 = 0.6364 X 0.81

1 2 3
pESWL= 1.031 MPa
E1/E2 = 250/50 = 5
ESWL = 1.031 X (p*1002)
Z/a = 200/100 = 2 = 32403 N = 32.4 kN
For ESWL (single load)
(r/a =0, z/a=2) F = 0.5
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ESWL – Other Criteria

Equal Tensile Strain - for pavements with
bituminous layers
Equal tensile stress – concrete pavements
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Equivalent Axle Load Factors (EALF)

• In some design methods, pavements are
designed for a selected number of repetitions of a
standard load (Standard axle load – 80kN)
• EALFs are used to covert different axle loads into
equivalent repetitions of standard axle.
• EALF defines the damage caused to the
pavement by one application of the axle load
under consideration relative to the damage
caused by a single application of a standard axle
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Equivalent Axle Load Factors (EALF)

• Design based on the total number of applications
of standard axle load during the design period
(ESAL)
m
ESAL = S Fini
I

m = number of axle load groups

Fi = EALF for the ith-axle load group
ni = number of applications of the ith group
during the design period
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Equivalent Axle Load Factors (EALF)

• For designing pavements, it is necessary to have
information on EALFs and the expected axle load
spectrum for the design period
• Axle load spectrum – number of passes of axles
for a different groups of axle loads (0-5 kN, 5-
10kN, etc)
• EALF (relative damaging effect) is a function of
the type of pavement, composition and strength
of pavement and criterion defining performance
(damage).
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EAL Factors
• EALFs are usually obtained from field
observation of performance of pavements
carrying different types of axle loads
• The EALFs obtained from the AASHO road test
are more commonly used
• EALFs can also be obtained from theoretical
exercise using appropriate mechanistic criteria
• EALFs are different for different types of
pavements and for different performance criteria
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AASHO EAL Factors
• The AASHO Road Experiment resulted in ESAL
factors as a function of the axle configuration,
load, pavement strength (structural number or
slab thickness), terminal condition of the
pavement
• A simplification of this is the Fourth power law
given as :
ESAL factor = (axle load / standard axle load)4

Example :160kN, 80 kN comparison

ESAL factor = (160/ 80)4
= 16
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AASHO EAL Factors (Flexible Pavements)
Axle Load Structural Number
(kips) 1 2 3 4 5 6
2 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002
12 0.16 0.18 0.19 0.18 0.17 0.17
18 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00
24 3.71 3.62 3.43 3.33 3.40 3.51
36 24.2 23.3 21.16 19.28 19.02 19.93
40 39.57 38.02 34.34 30.92 30.04 31.25

Pt = 2.0
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AASHO EAL Factors (Rigid Pavement)
Axle Load Slab Thickness, inches
(kips) 6 7 8 9 10 11
2 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002
12 0.19 0.18 0.18 0.18 0.17 0.17
18 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00
24 3.37 3.34 3.40 3.47 3.51 3.53
36 20.07 19.3 19.16 19.53 20.14 20.71
40 32.18 30.85 30.41 30.75 31.58 32.57

Pt = 2.0
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Axle Load Measurement
• To estimate the total projected repetitions of
commercial traffic in terms of the repetitions of a
standard load unit (standard axle load) it is necessary
to have an estimate of the axle load spectrum besides
the EALFs.
• Axle load spectrum is obtained by conducting axle
load survey of commercial vehicles
• Measurement of axle loads of a sample of commercial
vehicles plying on a given facility
• Conducted with Portable weigh Pads placed on the
site
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Axle Load Survey
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Axle Load Survey
• Adequate sample is selected
• Usually only wheel loads are measured
• Axle load = 2 * wheel load
• Complete axle load can be obtained using two
weigh pads
• Commercial vehicles in both directions
measured
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Analysis of Axle load survey data
CVs sampled = 450, Axles measured = 1000
Load 0 40 80 120 160 200
Group to 40 to 80 to 120 to 160 to 200 to 240
Freq. 50 250 400 250 40 10
Mid Pt 20 60 100 140 180 200
EALF 0.0625 0.3164 2.4414 9.379 25.629 57.19
ESAL 3.13 79.1 976.56 2344.75 1025.16 571.9

1000 axles = 5000.6 standard (80kN) axles

1 axle = 5.0 standard axle
450 commercial vehicles = 5000.6 standard (80kN) axles
1 c.v. = 5000.6/450 = 11.11 std. Axles (Vehicle Damage Factor)
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Vehicle Damage Factor (VDF)
• Used for converting a given traffic volume into
equivalent number of standard axles

• VDF is a typical value representing the loads

carried by the commercial vehicles plying on the
facility

• Determined by conducting axle load surveys

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Traffic Speed Consideration

Duration of load application is an important consideration
for selecting the theory to be used for analysis of the
pavements and also for selecting appropriate material
properties
The duration of load pulse is dependent on
• Depth
• Speed of vehicle
• Length of tyre imprint
• Pavement characteristics
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Duration of Load Pulses

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Estimation of Design Traffic

The repetitions of a standard load (80kN) expected
to be applied on the pavement during a specified
period (design life) is a function of
Initial traffic (commercial)
Cumulative traffic over the entire period taking into
account projections about rate of growth
Vehicle Damage Factor
Lateral Placement characteristics of wheel loads
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Example - Estimation of Design Traffic

1. Design life = 15 yrs

2. Traffic growth rate = 8 %
3. VDF = 4.5
6000 cv/day
Lateral distribution for 6-lane
divided facility = 0.6
N = 365 x [ (1+0.08)15-1] x 6000 x
0.6 x 4.5/ 0.08 = 160.55 msa