Modelling of pavement response under superheavy loads

An analysis of pavement response under multiple-axle, superheavy-load vehicles is presented. Pavement displacements under superheavy loads were measured using multidepth deflectometers. A procedure for data acquisition and modeling of the pavement structure and multiple-axle wheel loads is described. Pavement response is calculated using multilayer elastic theory, and the measured and calculated results are compared. It was found that layered elastic theory can provide a fairly accurate estimate of pavement displacements under expected superheavy loads, provided that the wheel load magnitudes are known.