Research on Distribution Characteristics of Shear Stresses in Rigid-Flexible Composite Pavement

As part of this paper, a finite element model was established to simulate the rigid-flexible composite pavement. The shear stress in the asphalt layer of the composite pavement was investigated by considering different factors, including vehicle speed, horizontal force, overload, temperature, and interlayer bonding conditions based on actual material properties, environment, and loading. Moreover, statistical analysis was adopted to evaluate the influence of different variables on shear stress. The results showed that with the increase of the horizontal force and overload, the shear stresses of different depths increase, and the shear stresses decrease with the rise of the vehicle speed and the improvement of the interlayer bonding condition. Furthermore, the temperature and horizontal force significantly affect the shear stress in the upper layer (0–4 cm), and the interlayer bonding condition substantially affects the shear stress of the pavement below 2 cm depth.