Three-dimensional contact stresses of a slick solid rubber tyre on a rigid surface

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to quantify the three-dimensional contact stresses imposed by a single slow-moving (or rolling) slick solid rubber tyre on a relatively rough contact surface, such as stiff asphalt concrete or airport concrete surfacing layers. The results indicated the tyre-contact patch of a slick solid rubber tyre to be of rectangular shape for a vertical tyre loading range between 20 kN and 100 kN. The rectangular tyre contact shape was confirmed with static paper prints, as well as an electronically measured contact patch with the stress-in-motion pad device. The study included load calibration using a mass load scale, and a stress-in-motion device. These were used with an existing full-scale accelerated pavement test device, referred to as the heavy vehicle simulator. In addition, simplistic multi-layer linear elastic modelling was used to quantify differences between stress and strain responses of two types of two relatively 'stiff' based pavements, such as an asphalt concrete base and Portland cement concrete base, on similar subbase and subgrade layers. Notable differences were obtained, which could potentially influence further detailed studies on the performance of full-scale slick solid rubber tyres on typical multi-layered pavements.