Abstract:
In order to better understand the impact of increased loading on roads, studies on tyre-road
interaction have gained prominence in recent years. Tyres form an essential interface between
vehicles and road pavement surfaces. These are the only parts of the vehicle that are in contact
with the road and transmit the vehicle loading to the road surface. The use of the Cartesian
coordinate system is convenient in dealing with a uniform/non-uniform tyre load acting over
a rectangular area, but few research reports are available that provide any form of theoretical
solutions for pavement responses. This paper presents analytical solutions of responses due to
rectangular loading acting on the surface of a multi-layered pavement system. The solutions
developed incorporate both isotropic and cross-anisotropic material properties. The method
followed is based on classical trigonometric integral and Fourier transformation of Navier’s
equations. Accuracy and validity of the solutions are verified through comparisons with a
proprietary finite element method (FEM) package. For this purpose, a pavement structure
composed of five main layers constituted by isotropic and cross-anisotropic (also known
as transversely isotropic) material properties is analysed. In order to vary some of the layer
properties with depth, the main layers were sub-layered, resulting in a 17-layer pavement system.
