STRESS AND DEFLECTION ANALYSIS IN RIGID PAVEMENTS DUE TO MOVING AXLE LOADS

Abstract

Since the beginning of been used in the analysis this century. many procedures have of rigid pavement subject to wheel trends es well as the absolute values of the m mum deflection and stress. loads and environmental effects. Among these methods is the finite element approach which has become the most commonly used. In this study. the Finite Element Method (FEM) was utilized to analyze rigid highway pavement subject to static and moving axle loads. This was done by developing two computer programs, one for static axle loads and the other for moving axles.. In these programs. every possible effort was made to ensure the program efficiency in handling matrices and storage requirements. The model considers several parameters that represent pavement and loading properties including axle load. axle speed. load posi• tion, tre pressure. slab dimensions. modulus of subgrade reac• tion. and condition of load transfer at transversal )cnts. Slabs are idealized into rectangular plate elements connected at their corners and subject to bending stresses. The Winkler model was used to simulate the subgrade as individual elastic and massless springs. by assigning values to the named parameters. the prcper model can be used to determine the resulting deflections and stresses throughout the slab area. The model then searches the results for maximum deflection and stress that correspond to assigned pavement and load properties. Over 200 computer runs were msde to provide enough results to help investigate the effect of individual parameters on the