Pavement Response in Flexible Pavements using Nonlinear Tire Contact Pressure and Measured Tire Contact Area

The important elements in pavement design criteria are the stress and strain distributions. To obtain reasonable stress and strain distribution, tire contact area and tire pressures are very important. In this study, finite element analysis was used to identify the three-dimension states using nonlinear tire contact pressure and measured tire contact area. Measured tire contact area was quite different from the assumed tire contact area, and it resulted in different strain states under the tire. At the surface course, considering tire rib and nonlinear tire pressure, the pavement response presented accurate data compared to the predicted one. However, at the binder course, tire effects were generally negligible and it showed that the predicted pavement response was different compared to the measured one.