Journal Published Online: 01 March 1997
Volume 25, Issue 2

Relationship Between Statistical Distributions of Traffic Loads and Pavement Responses

CODEN: JTEVAB

Abstract

Mechanistic-empirical design approaches have been developed to predict flexible pavement responses based on vehicle loads and elastic material parameters, but little is known about vehicle load distributions and seasonal changes in these parameters. Analysis of vehicle load and transverse strain distributions suggest a relationship between wheel loads and temperature-corrected strains. It appears that the wheel load distributions and corresponding temperature-corrected strain distributions are normal and lognormal, respectively. Plotting the 25th, 50th, 75th, and 99th percentile values from the load distribution against the corresponding percentiles from the strain distributions suggests a linear relationship between wheel load and temperature-corrected strain. This indicates that a probabilistic approach to traffic loadings may be incorporated into mechanistic-empirical design procedures for flexible pavements.

Author Information

Newcomb, DE
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Chadbourn, BA
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Van Deusen, DA
Office of Minnesota Road Research, Minnesota Dept. of Transportation, Maplewood, NJ
Pages: 7
Price: $25.00
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Stock #: JTE11478J
ISSN: 0090-3973
DOI: 10.1520/JTE11478J