Finite Element Modeling of Dynamic Tire/Pavement Interaction

Tire/pavement interaction has been an important research topic in pavement engineering for many years. This paper presents a finite element model for dynamic tire/pavement interaction, which can effectively include the dynamic tire rolling effect to predict the pavement response. The model represents a 4-tire vehicle. The tire is modeled as a finite strain hyperelastic material and pavement structure is modeled as elastic materials. The finite strain hyperelasticity model was implemented as user subroutine in ABAQUS. The numerical results show that tire contact area is neither circular nor rectangular. Also the contact pressure is not uniformly distributed, which provides some insight to justify why the conventional contact area assumption is inaccurate. Representative simulations are provided to demonstrate how the finite element model of tire/pavement interaction can be used to predict pavement response and pavement damage due to fatigue cracking and rutting in the field of pavement engineering.