An attempt was made to investigate damage caused to pavements bybenchmark (based on federal maximum weight limits for interstate highway systems) and heavy trucks in new england. Because the weigh-in-motion (wim) data were available from maine and rhode island, this study used wim data rather than sample or partial data. Two computerprograms, hetrom and hetror, were developed to extract heavy axles or trucks from wim data for further analysis. Two empirical procedures based on aashto interim and 1986 design guides were developed. These require two computer programs, hetrig and hetrng, respectively, to convert heavy axles to the equivalent 18-kip single-axle loads. After creating the traffic input data, a series of analyses was performed with the aforementioned empirical procedures. In addition, a preliminary analysis was also carried out using mechanistic proceduresbased on the asphalt institute's dama and the federal highway administration's vesys 3a-m programs. There were consistent observations, in all cases, that heavy trucks caused more damage than benchmark trucks. It was also observed that more damage caused by heavy trucks was predicted when there is a higher legal weight limit. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1286, Design and evaluation of rigid and flexible pavements 1990.
Abstract