Dynamic stress response of concrete pavements to moving tandem-axle loads

The dynamic stress response of concrete pavements subjected to moving tandem-axle loads of constant amplitude and harmonic and arbitrary variations was investigated. The concrete pavement was modeled using a plate of infinite extent on a viscoelastic foundation. Formulations were developed in the transformed field domain using (a) a double Fourier transform in space and moving space for moving loads of constant amplitude and for the steady-state response to moving harmonic loads and (b) a triple Fourier transform in time, space, and moving space for moving loads of arbitrary variation. The effects of viscous damping, velocity, load frequency, and phase between front- and rear-axle loads on the maximum stress and the stress distribution were analyzed. Without viscous damping, the effects of velocity and frequency, within practical ranges, on the stresses are negligible; however, with viscous damping, those effects are significant. Since materials used in various pavement layers possess damping characteristics, wheel load stresses can vary considerably because of velocity and load frequency. The increase in wheel load variations and corresponding concrete stresses can be significant if the roughness of the pavement surface is not controlled. The difference in the phase angles between front- and rear-axle loads can considerably increase the maximum stress; therefore, the use of tandem-axle loads and dynamic analyses is necessary to obtain the accurate stresses because the phase effect cannot be obtained with single-axle loads or static analyses.