Effect of the Incremental Loading Conditions in the Permanent Deformation in Heavy Vehicle Simulator Tests

Abstract

Load magnitude is a variable that needs to be adequately defined to simulate real pavement conditions in accelerated pavement tests (APT) sections. The performance of pavement structures under different loading conditions was evaluated. Two asphalt pavement structures were constructed and tested at Laval University (Quebec, Canada) using a heavy vehicle simulator (HVS). Seven load stages were defined considering different load magnitudes and water table levels, applying more than 182.000 cycle repetitions (unidirectional) with loads in the range from 40 kN to 80 kN on a half-single axle. Permanent deformations measured in the upper part of each layer, as well as at the surface of the pavements. Permanent deformation follows a trend related to the magnitude of the load, which was studied under the stress conditions defined during each load stage that was evaluated. The results show that permanent deformation follows an analogous behaviour under the same stress state in the granular and subgrade layers of the pavements studied. A reference for the normalization of this behaviour is presented in this paper.