Methodological Framework for Truck-Factor Estimation Considering Vehicle–Pavement Interaction
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 141, Issue 2
Abstract
Truck traffic is usually characterized by using truck factors (TFs). A TF converts a mixed truck traffic stream over the pavement design lifetime into a number of equivalent single-axle loads (ESALs). This conversion requires equivalent single-axle load factors (EALFs), which can either be empirical or theoretical. The mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide (MEPDG) considers axle load spectra and uses it to run the response model, considering implicitly theoretical EALFs. This paper presents a methodology for TF estimation based on theoretical EALFs calculated by using simulated axle loads, thus overcoming the unavailability of data to define axle load spectra. Once the EALFs are calculated for several simulations, TFs are established and regression models are defined to predict TFs. To reach this point, the study considered the two most common Portuguese truck configurations and pavement structures. The methodology development and application revealed its flexibility and upgradability. The results indicated that vehicle–pavement interaction increases TFs by up to 27% when the initial international roughness index (IRI) increases , underling the importance of the dynamic behavior of the loads.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
AASHTO. (1993). AASHTO guide for design of pavement structures, Washington, DC.
Almeida, A., and Picado-Santos, L. (2010). “The use of the boundary element method to establish a pavement response.” Proc., 2nd Int. Conf. on Transport Infrastructures (CD-ROM), International Society for Maintenance And Rehabilitation of Transport Infrastructures (ISMARTI), Guimarães, Portugal.
Almeida, A., Picado-Santos, L., and Capitão, S. (2013). “Assessment of the effect of the longitudinal roughness on the pavement life using the boundary element method.” 7 Congresso Rodoviário Português, Lisboa, Portugal (in Portuguese) 〈http://www.crp.pt/docs/A45S129-56_Art_T5_7CRP_2013.pdf〉 (Jul. 10, 2014).
Birgisson, B., Sangpetngam, B., and Roque, R. (2002). “Predicting viscoelastic response and crack growth in asphalt mixtures with the boundary element method.”, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC.
Blab, R. (1999). “Introducing improved loading assumptions into analytical pavement models based on measured contact stresses of tires.” Proc., Int. Conf. on Accelerated Pavement Testing (CD-ROM), Transportation research Board, Reno, NV.
Cebon, D. (1999). Handbook of vehicle-road interaction, Taylor & Francis, New York.
Cebon, D., and Newland, D. E. (1983). “Artificial generation of a road surface topography by the inverse FFT method.” Veh. Syst. Dyn.: Int. J. Veh. Mech. Mobil., 12(1), 160–165.
Chatti, K., and Lee, D. (2002). “Development of new profile-based truck dynamic load index.”, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, 149–159.
European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST). (2001). “Effects of wide single tyres and dual tyres (final report of the action—Version 29 November 2001 Taskgroup 3 final report).”, European Commission, Directorate General Transport, Belgium.
Eurostat. (2013). “Statistical database: Road transport, European commission.” 〈http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/transport/data/database〉 (Jan. 4, 2013).
Fernandes, J. L., and Barbosa, R. E. (2006). “Effects of axle load, suspension system, vehicle speed and pavement condition on dynamic loads.” Proc., 10th Int. Conf. on Asphalt Pavements, Transportation Association of Canada, ON, Canada.
Gillespie, T. D., et al. (1992). “Effects of heavy vehicle characteristics on pavement response and performance.” National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), Transportation Research Board (TRB), National Research Council, Washington, DC.
Haider, S. W., and Harichandran, R. S. (2007). “Relating axle load spectra to truck gross vehicle weights and volumes.” J. Transp. Eng., 696–705.
Huang, Y. H. (2004). Pavement analysis and design, Pearson, Prentice Hall, NJ.
Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE). (2012). “Instituto Nacional de Estatística (Statistics Portugal).” (in Portuguese) 〈http://www.ine.pt/xportal/xmain?xpid=INE&xpgid=ine_publicacoes&PUBLICACOESpagenumber=1&PUBLICACOESrevista=00&PUBLICACOEStema=55488&PUBLICACOESfreeText=Estat%C3%ADsticas%20dos%20transportes〉 (Oct. 2, 2012).
International Organization for Standardization (ISO). (1995). “Mechanical vibration—Road surface profiles—Reporting of measured data.”, Geneva.
Ioannides, A. M., and Khazanovich, L. (1993). “Load equivalency concepts: a mechanistic reappraisal.”, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC.
Junta Autónoma de Estradas (JAE). (1995). “Pavement design manual for the portuguese road network.” (in Portuguese).
Luz, S. D. S. (2011). “Contribution to the quality index model in the description of the national road network.” Master, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal (in Portuguese).
Mechanical Simulation Corporation (MSC). (2012). “TruckSim: Math models—Mechanical simulation.” 〈http://www.carsim.com/downloads/pdf/Math_Models_T81.pdf〉 (Jan. 19, 2012).
National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP). (2004). “MEPDG—Guide for mechanistic-empirical design of new and rehabilitated pavement structures.” Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, Washington, DC.
O’Connor, A., O’Brien, E. J., and Jacob, B. (2000). “An experimental investigation of spatial repeatability.” Int. J. Heavy Veh. Syst., 7(1), 64–81.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (1998). “Dynamic interaction between vehicles and infrastructure experiment (DIVINE).”, Paris, France.
Park, D.-W. (2010). “Evaluation of predicted pavement fatigue life based on surface profiles and asphalt mixture types.” J. Civ. Eng., 14(2), 191–196.
Romanoschi, S., Momin, S., Bethu, S., and Bendana, L. (2011). “Development of traffic inputs for new mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide.”, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC.
Sangpetngam, B., Birgisson, B., and Roque, R. (2004). “Multilayer boundary-element method for evaluating top-down cracking in hot-mix asphalt pavements.”, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC.
Sayers, M. W. (1990). “Symbolic computer methods to automatically formulate vehicle simulation codes.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
Shell International Petroleum Company. (1978). Shell pavement design manua—Asphalt pavements and overlays for road traffic, London.
Timm, D. H., Tisdale, M., and Turochy, R. E. (2005). “Axle load spectra characterization by mixed distribution modeling.” J. Transp. Eng., 83–88.
TruckSIM [Computer software]. Ann Arbor, MI, Mechanical Simulation.
Zhao, Y., Liu, W., and Tan, Y. (2012). “Analysis of critical structure responses for flexible pavements in NCHRP 1-37. A mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide.” J. Transp. Eng., 983–990.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 14, 2014
Accepted: Jun 5, 2014
Published online: Aug 14, 2014
Discussion open until: Jan 14, 2015
Published in print: Feb 1, 2015
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.