FE model of circular accelerated pavement testing setup to study the optimal layout configuration of multiple pavements

Abstract

Field calibration of Mechanistic-Empirical based models has practical limitations such as long testing times; high cost; uncontrolled environmental and traffic conditions. These factors have motivated engineers and researchers to use intermediary pavement evaluation techniques like Accelerated Pavement Testing (APT) setups that can be further classified into Linear and Circular Accelerated Pavement Testing (CAPT). In CAPT, multiple pavement segments can be simultaneously tested making it cost and time efficient. It is recommended to maintain a uniform contact force in the pavement segments to obtain unbiased testing results. For a uniform contact force, an optimal layout configuration of plates of the test track was studied using finite element analysis. The test track was divided into sixteen plates modelled using combination of four different pavement structures. The recommendations of the current study can be used to optimize the layout of the test track for CAPT with multiple pavement structures.