Pavement response due to dynamic axle loads

This paper describes the results of primary response measurements carried out to study the effects of dynamic loadings of vehicles on pavements. The measurements were made at the Virttaa test site in Finland as part of the OECD/DIVINE project. Two instrumented pavements and two artificial bumps were used to excite body bounce and axle hop. Instrumented vehicles were from Canada, the United Kingdom and Finland. The strains at the bottom of the bituminous courses were in almost direct proportion to the dynamic wheel loads on thick bituminous pavement. They were similar if there were air or steel suspensions or if the dynamic load was caused by body bounce or axle hop. On thin bituminous pavement the size of the changing tire imprint plays an important role and dynamic wheel loads have only a slight effect on the strains.