A flexible pavement damage metric for a straight truck

Pavement damage attributed to heavy truck traffi c is related to many road- and vehicle-related factors in a complex manner. A better estimation of pavement damage potential of heavy trucks is vital for management of roads and for determination of costs associated with the particular types of truck. In this paper, a metric based upon the energy stored within the pavement during a vehicle pass is proposed to assess pavement damage potential of trucks as a function of pavement responses to tyre loads, including both the normal and shear forces. The proposed metric effectively accounts for rate of loading, vehicle acceleration and deceleration and the pavement temperature. The simulation results suggest that the proposed metric could be effectively applied for road pricing purposes.