Surface deflection-based reliability analysis of asphalt pavement design

The surface deflection of asphalt pavement reflects the strength and stiffness of the entire structure, which can be used to evaluate the rutting life of asphalt pavements. However, it is influenced by various stochastic variables including traffic loads, material properties and structural thickness of each pavement course. The uncertainty of above stochastic variables is of significance for accurately predicting the rutting life of asphalt pavement. In this study, the statistical characteristics of stochastic variables of asphalt pavement were assessed based on the field data collected from asphalt pavement projects. A unique formula with a fairly good accuracy was found using multiple linear regression based on numerical simulation results to ease the calculation of pavement deflection during the reliability analysis. It is shown that the stochastic variables of asphalt pavement can be well characterized by normal distribution or logarithmic normal distribution. The regressed formula to calculate the surface deflection of pavement has a fairly good accuracy with an error of less than 6.0% compared to the numerical method. The proposed surface deflection-based reliability analysis can be used easily to evaluate the influence of input parameters on the rutting life and to guide the structure design of asphalt pavement with required reliability.

Application of semi-analytical finite element method to analyze asphalt pavement response under heavy traffic loads

Accurate assessment of the impact of heavy traffic loads on asphalt pavements requires a computational model which is able to calculate the response of the pavement fast and precisely. Currently the most finite element analysis programs based on traditional methods have various limitations. A specific program SAFEM was developed based on a semi-analytical finite element method to overcome the problems. It is a three-dimensional FE program that requires only a two-dimensional mesh by incorporating the semi- analytical method using Fourier series in the third dimension. The computational accuracy and efficiency of the program was verified by analytical verification previously. The experimental verification is carried out in this paper and the results show that the SAFEM is able to predict the mechanical responses of the asphalt pavement. Using the program SAFEM, the impact of heavy traffic loads was analyzed in terms of stress and strain dis- tribution, surface deflection and fatigue life. The results indicate that if the asphalt pave- ment is subjected to the heavy traffic load more, the thicknesses and stiffness of the pavement structural layers should be increased adequately in order to support the surface deflection, The compressive stress in asphalt binder course is relatively large and increases more significantly compared with that in the other asphalt layers when the axle load becomes larger. With comparison of the predicted fatigue life, the increase of the axle load will lead to the destruction of the asphalt pavement extremely easily.