Dynamic Analysis of Viscoelastic Asphalt Pavement

under Vehicle–Bridge Interaction Load

Enli Chen 1 and Xia Zhang 2
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Abstract: This paper proposes a scheme to study dynamic responses of viscoelastic asphalt pavement under vehicle–bridge interaction. It is
of great importance to accurately describe tire–pavement contact for dynamic behavior and damage prediction of pavement. The tire model
consists of hyperelastic rubber and linear-elastic hub, and the viscoelastic pavement is supported by a three-span continuous steel-concrete
bridge. Then, the dynamic coupling axial force considering vehicle–bridge interaction is applied to the tire connecting shaft, and the tire–
pavement interaction system is established. In addition, the tire–pavement finite-element (FE) model is validated by a field test in Qugang
Expressway, China. Finally, through parametric analysis, the effects of tire loads, pavement constitutive models, vehicle speeds, weights, and
road roughness on the dynamic behavior of flexible pavement are obtained. Also, stress distribution rules of the viscoelastic pavement are
discussed. DOI: 10.1061/JPEODX.0000296. © 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Author keywords: Tire–pavement interaction; Hyperelastic tire model; Viscoelastic pavement; Dynamic coupling; Constitutive model.

Introduction design of pavement cannot be ignored. Al-Qadi and Yoo (2007)

Pavement deterioration caused by vehicles is one of the main issues
that needs to be considered in the pavement design and assessment.
In the US, 32% of major roads were reported by the ASCE to be
in poor or medium condition (ASCE 2013). The consequences of
vehicle–infrastructure interaction are damage to pavements and
bridges, which brings extra costs to infrastructure users (Pape et al.
2015; Miyamoto et al. 2001; Yu et al. 2015). In particular, the
vehicle–pavement interaction may also effect the safety, maneuver-
ing, and fuel consumption of vehicles, as well as the quantification
of pavement response and damage.
Constant moving loads were often adopted in conventional
road analysis. According to the theoretical model of road dy-
namics, Chen et al. (2014) conducted the model experiment
and numerical study to achieve the dynamic behavior of roads
under moving vehicles. Wang et al. (2017) established a nonlin-
ear anisotropic pavement finite-element (FE) model and studied
the mechanical response of viscoelastic pavement subjected to
moving vehicles. In particular, dynamic responses of pavement
were recently researched considering random moving loads
due to pavement surface roughness (Zhao and Wang 2020;
Wang et al. 2020). However, scholars have found that the tire–
pavement contact stress is in three directions (Novak et al.
2003a, b; Wang et al. 2017).
In addition, studies have showed that the influence of three-
dimensional (3D) contact stress on the dynamic behavior and
1 and the pavement was assumed to be in an elastic state. Chen et al.
Professor, State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Behavior in Traffic
Engineering Structure and System Safety, Shijiazhuang Tiedao Univ.,
Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050043, China. Email: chenenl@stdu.edu.cn
2
Graduate Research Assistant, State Key Laboratory of Mechanical
Behavior in Traffic Engineering Structure and System Safety, Shijiazhuang
Tiedao Univ., Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050043, China (corresponding author).
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0456-2652. Email: zhangx@stdu
.edu.cn
Note. This manuscript was submitted on March 27, 2020; approved on
April 8, 2021; published online on July 27, 2021. Discussion period open
until December 27, 2021; separate discussions must be submitted for in-
dividual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Transportation En-
gineering, Part B: Pavements, © ASCE, ISSN 2573-5438.
determined a validated 3D FE pavement model and applied the
measured 3D contact stresses as its moving load. Wang and
Al-Qadi (2009) evaluated flexible pavement response considering
both the 3D contact stresses and moving wheel load. The excessive
contact stress of the tire may lead to top-down cracks, main ruts,
and fatigue damage. Wang et al. (2016) used the contact stress and a
high-speed rolling tire to simulate a more realistic situation and
studied tire–pavement coupling.
Few researchers have coupled the pavement and tire in one
system model. Scholars often used the contact forces on the tire–
pavement surface as input of a pavement model (Han et al. 2019;
Wang et al. 2017). Al-Qadi and Wang (2011) firstly obtained 3D
contact stress from a tire model and then exerted it on the 3D
pavement model to calculate its response and damage. In addition,
a tire–terrain interaction model was developed in ABAQUS to pre-
dict soil compaction and tire movement (Xia 2011). Even more,
Srirangam et al. (2014) exploited a thermomechanical coupled tire–
pavement model to evaluate temperature distribution in different
regions of the tire. Wollnya et al. (2016) established the numerical
models of coupled tire–pavement interaction under static and roll-
ing contact conditions based on a FE formula.
Few studies considered the influence of vehicle–bridge coupling
on the pavement. Han et al. (2019) studied the dynamic responses
of bridge deck pavement by a developed vehicle–bridge–bridge
deck pavement (BDP) coupled model. However, a vehicle load with
constant magnitude was applied on the surfacing of the pavement,
(2020) proposed a new method to analyze dynamic response of
pavement considering vehicle–road–bridge interaction. Although
the real vehicle model is adopted, the constitutive relation of
pavement is still linear elasticity. In fact, asphalt is a kind of visco-
elastic material; thus, its dynamic response should be analyzed by a
viscoelastic constitutive model. Romero et al. (2018) proposed an
integrated model to investigate the vehicle–infrastructure interac-
tion. Still, the pavement was assumed to be in a linear-elasticity
state. Although few scholars realized coupling interaction between
vehicle and infrastructure (bridge or pavement), the pavement was
assumed in a linear-elasticity state different from the reality.

© ASCE 04021050-1 J. Transp. Eng., Part B: Pavements

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 With the aim to analyze the viscoelastic pavement’s response road roughness on the pavement are investigated. Also, stress dis-
considering vehicle–bridge interaction (VBI), the dynamic analysis tribution rules of the viscoelastic pavement are discussed.
scheme is proposed (Fig. 1). Chen et al. (2020) integrated the
vehicle and the bridge with linear-elastic pavement in one coupled
system model, and the dynamic coupling force can be obtained Tire–Pavement Interaction Model
using the Park numerical integration method. Thus, this paper aims
to establish viscoelastic constitutive model of asphalt pavement and Tire FE Model
apply the dynamic coupling force considering VBI. It is difficult to
accurately determine the contact patch of tires. To describe tire– The modeled heavy-duty truck tire is 310 mm wide and the height
pavement contact accurately, the pavement and tire are integrated is 305.5 mm; the tire radius is 563.5 mm, and the rim diameter is
in a single finite-element model. Then the dynamic coupling force 516 mm. The hub was assumed to be linear and composed of plies,
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is applied to the connecting shaft of the tires. By this method, the
dynamic response of viscoelastic pavement under vehicle–bridge
interaction can be analyzed successfully. The proposed dynamic
analysis scheme can consider not only the characteristics of ve-
hicles (e.g., weight, speed, and suspension characteristics), but also
the adhesive properties of asphalt material.
This paper establishes a hyperelastic tire and viscoelastic pave-
ment model to form the tire–pavement interaction system. The dy-
namic coupling axial force is applied to the tire connecting shaft. In
addition, the tire–pavement FE model is validated by a field test in
Qugang Expressway, China. Finally, the effect of tire loads, con-
stitutive models of the pavement, vehicle speeds and weights, and
belts, and bead wire. Additionally, the Yeoh model was adopted to
consider the hyperelastic characteristic of rubber, whose material
constants was provided by the tire manufacturer. This model is suit-
able for large deformation of tires, and the stored strain energy can
be expressed
W ¼ C10 ðI 1 − 3Þ þ C20 ðI 1 − 3Þ2 þ C30 ðI 1 − 3Þ3 ð1Þ
where C10 , C20 , and C30 = empirically determined material con-
stants; I 1 = first principal invariant of the right Cauchy-Green
deformation tensor; and W = strain energy density. The modeled
material parameters are based on those of Su et al. (2019), as in-
dicated in Table 1.

Fig. 1. Dynamic analysis scheme of viscoelastic pavement considering vehicle–bridge interaction.

Table 1. Parameters of truck tires

Part Young’s modulus (MPa) Poisson’s ratio Density (kg=m−3 ) C10 (MPa) C20 (MPa) C30 (MPa)
Rubber — 0.5 3,400 0.98 −0.14 0.1
Steel cord 0.78 0.48 7,850 — — —

© ASCE 04021050-2 J. Transp. Eng., Part B: Pavements

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 (a) (b) (c) (d)
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Fig. 2. Tire model: (a) rubber layer; (b) piles layer; (c) bead wire layer; and (d) three-dimensional tire model.

presents also asymmetric. The 3D contact stresses can be verified

by Wang et al. (2017). The pavement responses are considerably
affected by 3D contact stresses along its depth. The difference of
strain responses between the asphalt pavement surface and bottom
can reach 20%–25% under 3D tire load. Several scholars pointed
out that it was necessary to estimate the pavement responses con-
sidering the 3D tire contact stresses (Shakiba et al. 2016). This re-
search focuses on the responses of viscoelastic pavement.

Dynamic Coupling Axial Force

Al-Qadi and Elseifi (2007) reported that the dynamic analysis
should be taken into account because of its greater stress-strain re-
(a) (b) sponse on pavement. The maximum difference between transient
dynamic and quasi-static analyses could be 39%, 25%, and 10%
Fig. 3. Tire loading position: (a) actual position (image by Xia Zhang);
in tensile strain, compressive stress, and overall longitudinal strain,
and (b) simulation position.
respectively (Yoo and Al-Qadi 2007). The constant moving tire
force was exerted on the tire–pavement interaction model in avail-
able research (Hernandez and Al-Qadi 2016). However, the tire
The tire model was built according to the actual tire structure, load is a dynamic random load, changing with time. Thus, this pa-
which mainly included rubber layers, plies layer, and bead wire per adopted the dynamic coupling force considering vehicle–bridge
layer, among others. The tire pressure is 0.7 MPa. The finite- interaction to reflect the real stress state. Compared with the
element model of the tire is detailed in Fig. 2. pavement on the road, the deck pavement subjects to vibration
In order to ensure the free rotation of rubber tires, the multi- of the bridge. Accordingly, the tire loading should consider ve-
rigid-body system connection unit Hinge was adopted. There hicle–bridge coupling. In Chen et al. (2020), the vehicle and the
was no displacement between the two ends of the Hinge. It can bridge with linear-elastic pavement was integrated in one coupled
only rotate along the rotating axis. The two ends of the connecting system model [Fig. 5(a)]. The motion equation for the VBI system
unit were fixed on the rubber tire hub, and finally the two tires is expressed
rotated around the connecting Hinge. The coupling axis load dis-
 
 
Mb Ẍ b Cb þ Cbb Cbv Ẋ b
cussed in detail in the next section was applied to the middle of the þ
connecting unit Hinge (center of the two wheels), as shown Mv Z̈c Cvb Cv Żc

   
in Fig. 3. K b þ K bb K bv Xb Fbv
þ ¼ ð2Þ
K vb Kv Zc Fvb þ Ft
Tire Contact Stress
where M v and M b are the mass matrices of the vehicle and bridge;
Precise expression of tire–pavement contact stresses is particularly Cv and Cb are the damping matrices of the vehicle and bridge; K v
important for dynamic response of the pavement. Several studies and K b are the stiffness matrices of the vehicle and bridge; Zc and
have taken into account 3D contact stresses that are highly nonuni- X b are the displacement vectors of the vehicle and bridge; K bb , K bv ,
form to accurately represent a real stress distribution (Al-Qadi and K vb , Cbb , Cbv , and Cvb are the stiffness and damping matrices
Wang 2009a, b). Fig. 3 displays the 3D contact stresses of a truck caused by vehicle–bridge coupling; Fbv and Fvb = wheel–deck
tire when the tire force was 25 kN and tire inflation pressure was pavement contact force; and Ft = gravity of the vehicle body.
0.7 MPa. The vertical contact stress distribution obtained by super- The calculation efficiency can be improved by using the mode
position of tire inflation pressure and vertical pressure is shown in superposition technique. Then, Eq. (2) is rewritten as follows:
Fig. 4(a). The vertical contact stress distribution is symmetrical.
 
 
The peak value of the vertical contact stress is about twice the tire I üb 2ωi ηi I þ ϕTb Cbb ϕb ϕTb Cbv u̇b
þ
inflation pressure. Mv Z̈c Cvb ϕb Cv Żc
Fig. 4(b) represents that the transverse tangential contact stress
2    T 
ωi I þ ϕb K bb ϕb ϕb K bv
T T ub ϕb Fbv
appears asymmetric. A similar conclusion can be reached from þ ¼ ð3Þ
Fig. 4(c) that the contact stresses in longitudinal tangential direction K vb ϕb Kv Zc Fvb þ Ft

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Fig. 4. Three-dimensional tire contact stress: (a) vertical; (b) transverse; and (c) longitudinal.

Fig. 5. Calculation model and coupling force: (a) vehicle–bridge system model; and (b) coupling force for Grade C roughness.

where ηi = percentage of the critical damping of the ith mode for solving Eq. (3) using the Park numerical integration method.
the bridge; and ui ¼ ith modal coordinate of the bridge. The coupling axial force considering vehicle–road–bridge interac-
The middle rear axial vertical force, which is named as the tion changes with the vehicle characteristics (e.g., weight, speed,
coupling axial force (Fig. 3) in this paper, can be obtained by and suspension characteristics). When the vehicle mass is 50 t

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Fig. 6. Bridge layout (unit: centimeters): (a) elevation; (b) cross section; and (c) structural sketch of the pavement.

and the speed is 50 km=h, the coupling axial force is as shown in excitation, the three subsystems are actually continuous contact
Fig. 5(b). and impact processes. The contact finite-element method can trans-
form the contact process between tire and bridge deck pavement into
a continuous contact-impact process in the time domain. Then, the
Tire–Pavement Interaction System dynamic equation of the tire–pavement coupling system is expressed
The pavement was a deformable 0.35 × 12.76 × 90 m viscoelastic
block; a three-span steel-concrete composite continuous bridge was M Ÿ þ CẎ þ KY þ R ¼ PðtÞ ð6Þ
assigned under the pavement, as shown in Fig. 6. The pavement is
cast-in-place reinforced concrete pavement and asphalt pavement. where M, K, and C represent the mass, stiffness, and damping
The concrete pavement is made up of C50 steel fiber concrete with matrices, respectively; Y represents displacement vectors; R = resil-
a thickness of 25 cm; the asphalt pavement is composed of 4-cm ience of wheels or paving materials; and PðtÞ = forces acting be-
stone mastic asphalt (SMA)-13 and 6-cm asphalt rubber hot-mix tween wheels and bridges. Compared with the explicit dynamic
(ARHM)-20 from top to bottom; the structure of bridge deck pave-
ment is shown in Fig. 6(c).
Because the asphalt pavement belongs to viscoelastic material, Table 2. Asphalt mixture Prony parameter at 45°C
it can be defined using the generalized Maxwell model. When a Type τi gi
certain strain is applied to the generalized Maxwell model, each
Maxwell element has the same strain. The classical genetic integral Upper layer (SMA-13) 0.00001 0.749
form of polymer can be written 0.0001 0.1063
0.001 0.0643
Z t
dσ ðsÞ 0.01 0.029
σðε; tÞ ¼ gðt − sÞ 0 ds ð4Þ 0.1 0.0145
0 ds 1 0.0068
10 0.0036
where σ0 ðsÞ = elastic response part; and gðtÞ = attenuation function,
100 0.0017
which can be written in Prony series form 1,000 0.0013
X
N Lower layer (AC-20) 0.000002 0.09333
gðtÞ ¼ 1 − gi ð1 − e−t=τ i Þ ð5Þ 0.00002 0.15075
i¼1 0.0002 0.21561
0.002 0.23601
where N = Prony number of terms; gi = material constant; and 0.02 0.17426
τ i = delay time. 0.2 0.08328
The data of asphalt mixture in this paper are based on the 2 0.02902
literature (Yan and Wang 2016), as presented in Table 2. The tem- 20 0.00929
perature used in the simulation is 45°C. 200 0.00325
The tire–pavement interaction system includes three subsystems: 2,000 0.00128
tire, viscoelastic pavement, and three-span continuous beam. Details 20,000 0.00059
are shown in Fig. 7. Both subsystems are originally continuous 200,000 0.00017
2,000,000 0.00048
and stable processes. However, due to the internal and external

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 (a) (b)

Fig. 7. Tire–pavement interaction model: (a) sectional view; and (b) 3D view.
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(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 8. Field experiment: (a) acceleration sensor; (b) modal test system (image by authors); and (c) deflection test.

analysis, the implicit dynamic analysis of ABAQUS version 6.14 is
unconditionally stable and is usually effective when the loading
period is relatively longer (Karlsson and Hibbitt 1998). Thus, this
approach was adopted in this paper.
Verification
To examine the validity of tire–pavement interaction model, the
field experiment of bridge dynamic load was implemented, as
shown in Fig. 8. The modal dynamic characteristics (i.e., frequency,
mode shape, and damping coefficient) and the deflection of bridge
were measured. The test truck was 50 t, which passed through the
continuous beam at constant speeds of 4, 25, 40, and 50 km=h,
respectively. The longitudinal positions of observation points are
located in the middle of the second span, 5 and 10 m away from
the middle of the span. Additionally, the transverse arrangement of
observation points is shown in Fig. 9.
In this paper, the test deflection of Point 3 in the second span is
selected to compare with the simulation results (Fig. 10). The actual
vehicle’s moving load distribution was used, and the same param-
eters as the test were set up in ABAQUS. Then, the first three
modes and the deflection of the bridge were output. Grade C road
roughness is adopted in the simulation, which is consistent with the
road condition in the experiment. The results of the field experi-
ment and simulation are represented in Figs. 10–13. The experi-
mental and simulated deflections of the second span and modes
are provided in Tables 3 and 4.
As it can be realized from Fig. 10, the simulation results match
well with those of the field test. Thus, the rationality of the tire–
pavement interaction model is indicated.
From Table 3, one can see that there is a certain difference
between the experimental values and simulation values. But the
difference between the simulation and the experiment gradually
decreases with increasing vehicle speed. The errors are within the
allowable range of engineering. Therefore, the FE model can be
applicable to simulate the dynamic behavior of the bridge when
vehicles pass through.
3
Simulation
2 Test

1
Deflection (mm)

-1

-2

-3

Point 3 -4
Point 2 Point 1
-5

-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Time (s)

Fig. 9. Observation position (unit: centimeters). Fig. 10. Deflection comparison.

© ASCE 04021050-6 J. Transp. Eng., Part B: Pavements

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 (a) (b)
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Fig. 11. First mode: (a) test; and (b) computation.

(a) (b)

Fig. 12. Second mode: (a) test; and (b) computation.

(a) (b)

Fig. 13. Third mode: (a) test; and (b) computation.

Table 3. Comparison of experimental and simulated values From Table 4, one can see that the frequency is compared be-
Velocity Test Simulation Error tween the bridge test and FE model. The errors are acceptable.
(km · h−1 ) (mm) (mm) (%) It can be inferred that the bridge has fine dynamic characteristics
when its calculated frequency is little smaller than the tested fre-
4 4.019 4.42 9
25 4.314 4.47 3.6 quency. Figs. 11–13 show that the modal results from the field test
40 4.441 4.62 4 go well with those of the FE model. Thus, the FE model is proved
50 4.530 4.7 3.7 to be effective.

Table 4. Comparison of inherent frequency Results and Discussion

Test Computation Error
This section discusses the dynamic response of the viscoelastic
Mode frequency frequency (%)
pavement considering several important effect parameters based
1 3.516 3.345 2 4.8 on the literature (Deng and Cai 2010; Huang 2005; Sun et al.
2 4.102 4.172 6 1.7 2007), including vehicle load, constitutive model of the pavement,
3 4.980 5.256 0 5.5
vehicle speed, vehicle weight, and road roughness, for example.

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(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Fig. 14. Response of pavement under coupling and uncoupling action: (a) deflection; (b) vertical stress; (c) longitudinal stress; and (d) transverse
stress.

Additionally, the deflection and stress of the viscoelastic pave-
ment based on the validated tire–pavement interaction model are
discussed.
Tire Load
At present, most scholars simplify the vehicle load to a moving load
without considering coupling. The actual vehicle-to-pavement ex-
citation is a coupled force in the course of driving. Therefore, it is
necessary to study the responses of the viscoelastic pavement under
coupled and uncoupled tire load. Fig. 14 compares the dynamic
response of the same position under a coupled force with an un-
coupled situation, when the vehicle mass is 50 t and the speed
is 50 km=h.
Fig. 14(a) shows that the deflection of the pavement increased
from 0.87 mm when uncoupled to 1.1 mm when coupled, an incre-
ment of 26.5%. Thus, neglecting coupling will underestimate the
pavement deflections. Figs. 14(b–d) compares stresses under an
uncoupled force with those under a coupled force, including the
vertical stress, longitudinal stress, and transverse stress of the deck
pavement. It shows that longitudinal and transverse stresses of the
coupled case are very close to those of uncoupled case. However,
the vertical stress under the coupled force is larger than that under
the uncoupled force. It is because the vertical dynamic coupled
force has great influence on the vertical stress but a small influence
on the longitudinal stress and transverse stress. One can conclude
that asphalt pavement is prone to be destroyed by formation of
rutting, cracks, and potholes during service process, which affects
the service performance and life of asphalt pavement obviously.
Constitutive Model of the Pavement
The surface displacements of pavement for different constitutive
models are presented in Table 5 and Fig. 15. Two constitutive mod-
els are used in this study: the linear-elastic constitutive model and
viscoelastic constitutive model. Table 6 provides the pavement’s
material parameters for the linear-elastic constitutive model.
From the Fig. 15, one can see that there is a certain difference of
the displacement values between different constitutive models. The
deflection values of the viscoelastic constitutive model are a little
larger than those of the linear constitutive model. Due to a single
tire load, the obtained differences are only 10%. However, the
difference might be magnified when the pavement’s temperature
changes. Thus, neglecting viscoelasticity of the pavement will
underestimate the displacement on the surface.
Analysis of Other Factors Affecting Viscoelastic
Pavements
Other influence parameters, namely vehicle speed, weight, road
roughness, and loading position, were considered in the parametric
study. The mass was taken into consideration by being divided into
Table 5. Pavement’s displacement for different constitutive models
Vehicle weight Linear elastic Viscoelastic Rise
(t) (mm) (mm) (%)
20 0.507 0.566 11.6
35 0.733 0.796 8.59

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 0.4
0.2

0.2

Vertical Displacement (mm)

Vertical displacement (mm)
0.0
0.0

-0.2 -0.2

-0.4
-0.4
Linear elastic
Viscoelastic -0.6 Viscoelastic
Linear elastic
-0.6
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-0.8

-0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
(a) Time (s) (b) Time (s)

Fig. 15. Displacement comparison for different vehicle weights: (a) 20 t; and (b) 35 t.

Table 6. Pavement material parameters performance. The middle section of the second span is taken as the
Thickness Density Young’s modulus Poisson’s calculation section, and the surface midpoint of the pavement for
Material (cm) (kg=m3 ) (MPa) ratio this section is taken as the calculation point. Firstly, the coupling
force was determined, as shown in Fig. 16 (different vehicle
SMA-13 4 2,460 1,400 0.35
ARHM-20 6 2,550 1,200 0.35 weights) and Fig. 17 (different speeds). Then, the coupling force
was applied to the tire connecting shaft, and parametric analysis
was conducted by the proposed scheme in this paper. At last,
the analytical results are shown in Figs. 18 and 19.
three groups: 20 t (no load), 35 t (half load), and 50 t (full load). The deflection, transverse stress, and shear stress obtained from
This paper studied vehicular velocities of 10–80 km=h, covering numerical simulations are plotted in Fig. 18 where plots with differ-
typical velocities of most heavy trucks in China. In general, the ent vehicle weights are separated. As can be seen, the deflection,
deflection mainly reflects the overall dynamic effect of the struc- transverse stress, and shear stress raise markedly with the increase
ture, whereas the stress of the key section reflects the local dynamic of vehicle weight. The deflections obtained from the proposed

-20
-10
-60
-20
Coupling force (KN)
Coupling force (KN)

-40
Coupling force (kN)

-30 -80

-40 -60

-100
-50
-80
-60
-120

-70 -100
2 4 6 8 10 2 4 6 8 10 2 4 6 8 10
(a) Time (s) (b) Time (s) (c) Time (s)

Fig. 16. Dynamic coupling force for different weights at 50 km=h: (a) 20 t; (b) 35 t; and (c) 50 t.

-10 -10 -10

-20 -20 -20

Coupling force(kN)
Coupling force (kN)
Coupling force(kN)

-30 -30 -30

-40 -40 -40

-50 -50 -50

-60 -60 -60

-70 -70 -70

4 6 8 10 3 4 5 6 3 4 5 6
(a) Time (s) (b) Time (s) (c) Time (s)

Fig. 17. Dynamic coupling force for different speeds at 20 t: (a) 50 km=h; (b) 60 km=h; and (c) 80 km=h.

© ASCE 04021050-9 J. Transp. Eng., Part B: Pavements

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 0.4 0.2
0.0

Transverse stress (MPa)

0.2
0.1

Shear stress (MPa)

-0.2
Deflection (mm)

0.0

-0.2 0.0
-0.4
-0.4 50 t
50 t
50 t -0.6 35 t -0.1
-0.6 35 t
35 t 20 t
20 t
-0.8 20 t
-0.8 -0.2
-0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 2.4 2.6 2.8 3.0 3.2 3.4 3.6 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
(a) Time(s) (b) Time (s) (c) Time (s)
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Fig. 18. Variation of indices with changes in vehicle weights: (a) deflection; (b) transverse stress; and (c) shear stress.

0.2
0.60
0.1
Deflection (mm)

0.0

Deflection (mm)
0.55
-0.1
-0.2
0.50
-0.3
10m/s
-0.4
20m/s 0.45
-0.5 30m/s
-0.6 40m/s
0.40
0 2 4 6 8 10 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
(a) Time (s) (b) (c) Speed (km/h)

Fig. 19. Variation of deflection with change in vehicle speeds.

0.4
Delection/mm

0.0

-0.4

C-grade
-0.8 A-grade

-1.2
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 20. Simulation results for different road roughnesses: (a) coupling force for Grade A; (b) coupling force for Grade C; and (c) deflection
comparison.

scheme are also plotted against the vehicle speed in Fig. 19. It can compared in dynamic response analysis of viscoelastic pavement
be seen that the change trend of the deflection is not obvious with using the validated FE model. For Grades A and C, Gd ðn0 Þ ¼
increase of vehicle speed. 16 and 256, respectively.
In this paper, the road roughness was simulated with the random Fig. 20 represents the coupling forces and the deflection for dif-
harmonic wave superposition method [ISO 8608 (ISO 2005)]. The ferent road roughnesses. The vertical displacement of pavement
power spectral density (PSD) is expressed as follows: surface under the A and C spectrum is −0.92 and −1.1 mm, respec-
tively. The latter increases by 19% compared with the former. Thus,
Gd ðnÞ ¼ Gd ðn0 Þðn=n0 Þ−w ð7Þ it is evident that pavement deterioration has a great influence on
pavement displacement.
where n0 ¼ 0.1 m−1 = reference spatial frequency; n = spatial fre- Fig. 21 shows the tire position for three considered loading
quency; and w = frequency index with a range of 1.75 < w < 2.25. cases. The deflections of the pavement surface obtained from
The road roughness can be divided into five grades according to numerical simulations under the three loading cases are plotted
ISO, from A to E. Grade A and Grade C road roughnesses were against time in Fig. 22. It can be concluded that the tire loading

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J. Transp. Eng., Part B: Pavements, 2021, 147(4): 04021050

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Fig. 21. Tire loading position.

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 22. Deflection for different tire loading positions: (a) Load case 1; (b) Load case 2; and (c) Load case 3.

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 23. Time histories of transverse stresses for different tire loading positions: (a) Load case 1; (b) Load case 2; and (c) Load case 3.

positions have little effect on dynamic deflection of the pavement.
However, it is crucial to static analysis. The time histories of pave-
ment transverse stresses under different loading cases are obtained,
as shown in Fig. 23. It shows the similar results to those observed in
Fig. 22: the dynamic response of the transverse stress remains
nearly unchanged for the three loading cases. Thus, dynamic re-
sponses of the deck pavement have little to do with the tire loading
cases.
The results show that the vehicle weight, driving speed, and road
roughness have significant effects on the dynamic response of the
midspan displacement of bridge deck pavement. The deflection and
stresses rapidly increase with the increase of vehicle weight,
whereas there is no clear relationship between the deflection and
vehicle speed. The vertical displacement of pavement surface will
increase significantly when the pavement deteriorates. However,
the tire loading positions have little influence on the dynamic re-
sponse of the deck pavement. The influence of vehicle speeds,
weights, and road roughness on the deflection and stress are the
same as in this paper when the pavement is assumed to be elastic
(Chen et al. 2020). Thus, the numerical value of pavement response
varies with the change of constitutive models, but the law of pave-
ment response remains unchanged.
Stress Analysis
Fig. 24 shows the stress response of asphalt upper layer, asphalt
lower layer, concrete layer, and steel beam. The results indicate
that the vertical compressive stress of the asphalt upper layer is

© ASCE 04021050-11 J. Transp. Eng., Part B: Pavements

J. Transp. Eng., Part B: Pavements, 2021, 147(4): 04021050

 Longitudinal stress (MPa)
Vertical stress (MPa)
0.02

Vertical stress (MPa)

0.01

Asphalt upper layer

Asphalt upper layer
0.00 Asphalt lower layer
Asphalt lower layer
Concrete layer
Concrete layer

-0.01
0 2 4 6
(a) Time (s) (b) Time (s) (c) Time (s)
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4 5
Longitudinal stress (MPa)

Transverse stress (MPa)

Transverse stress (MPa)
3 4

3
2
2
1
1
Concrete layer
0 Asphalt upper layer 0
Asphalt lower layer
-1 -1
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(d) Time (s) (e) Time (s) (f) Time (s)

Fig. 24. Response of stress: (a) vertical stress for the pavement; (b) vertical stress for the steel beam; (c) longitudinal stress for the pavement;
(d) longitudinal stress for the steel beam; (e) transverse stress for the pavement; and (f) transverse stress for the steel beam.

the largest, whereas that of the concrete layer is the smallest. The influence factors such as temperature and seepage flow, which is a
change trend of longitudinal stress in the asphalt upper layer and future study direction. In addition, the analysis results are obtained
concrete layer is similar, but the tension stress and compression under a single tire load. The difference might expand with the in-
stress alternate in the asphalt lower layer. Most of the transverse crease of actual traffic flow and lead to a significant difference in
stresses in the asphalt layer and concrete layer are in a compressive fatigue damage study.
state. The steel beam is mostly in a tension state whenever vertical
stress, longitudinal stress, and transverse stress are present.
Data Availability Statement

Concluding Remarks Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this
study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable
A new tire–pavement interaction system suitable for dynamic request, including the tire–pavement interaction model in CAE
analysis of viscoelastic pavement was proposed. A dynamic cou- format and the calculation results in Microsoft Excel format.
pling force instead of constant moving load was exerted on the tire
to investigate the tire–pavement interaction. Tire loads, constitutive
models, and other parameters composed the parametric study. In Acknowledgments
addition, stress distribution rules of the viscoelastic pavement were
discussed. The main conclusions are as follows: The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the Na-
• The longitudinal stress and transverse stress of coupling are very tional Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 12072205).
close to those of uncoupling. However, the vertical stress under
the coupling force is larger than that under the uncoupling force.
• The pavement displacement value is larger considering the References
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