Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Influence of tire pressure on the rutting and fatigue life of bituminous pavement

  • Published:
Sādhanā Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In India, the axle loads have increased substantially in the recent decades and a majority of such overloaded vehicles are expected to have increased tire pressure. Increased tire pressures have a significant impact on the performance of the pavement as the load is applied over a concentrated area. Very little data is available related to the magnitude of tire pressures currently observed in India and its impact on the rutting (Nr) and fatigue (Nf) life of bituminous pavements. This study aims at quantifying such information for India. A field survey was conducted at five weighbridges for 100 vehicles to measure the tire pressures and the corresponding axle loads. Considering all the rear axles, it was observed that the mean tire pressure was 833 kPa and about 50% of the vehicles operated with a tire pressure greater than 800 kPa. To illustrate the combined influence of axle load and tire pressure, pavement sections available in IRC: 37-2018 were chosen and evaluated for their rutting and fatigue performance. For instance, for 10% CBR and 50 Million Standard Axles (MSA) traffic, when the tire pressure was increased from 500 kPa to 1200 kPa, it was observed that Nf reduced by 41% and Nr reduced by 5%. The fatigue life of the surface layer is seen to be more sensitive to variation in tire pressure. Moreover, the magnitude of influence exerted by the tire pressure depended on the axle load to a large extent.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Huang Y H 2004 Pavement Analysis and Design. 2nd edn. Prentice-Hall, New Jersey, USA, Englewood Cliffs

    Google Scholar 

  2. MoRTH 2018 Gazette of India. Part-II. Section 3 (ii)

  3. Savio D, Nivitha M R, Bindhu B K and Krishnan J M 2016 Overloading analysis of bituminous pavements in India using M-E PDG. Transp. Res. Procedia. 17: 607–616

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Hameed S and Prathap R 2018 Study on impact of vehicle overloading on National Highways in varying terrains. Int. J. Eng. Res. 7(1): 292–303

    Google Scholar 

  5. Middleton D R, Roberts F L and Chira-Chavala T 1986 Measurement and analysis of truck tire pressures on Texas highways. Transp. Res. Rec. 1070. Transportation Research Board. Washington D.C. pp. 1–8

  6. Behiry A Y and Beltagy, 2013 Mechanistic-Empirical study of sensitivity of truck tire pressure to asphalt pavement thickness in Egypt. Int. J. Eng. Res. Appl. 3: 1760–1771

    Google Scholar 

  7. Ahmad Arshad K, Harun M S, Jasmi N, Yaacob S and Haron H A 2018 Effect of heavy vehicles’ tire pressure on bituminous pavements. Int. J. Civ. Eng. Technol. 9: 1161–1170

    Google Scholar 

  8. Wang F and Machemehl R B 2006 Mechanistic–Empirical study of effects of truck tire pressure on pavement: Measured tire–pavement contact stress data. Transp. Res. Rec. 1947. Transportation Research Board. Washington D.C. pp. 136-145

  9. Tielking J T and Roberts F L 1987 Tire contact pressure and its effect on pavement strain. J. Transp. Eng. ASCE. 113: 56–71

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Marshek K M, Hudson W R, Connell R B, Chen H H and Saraf C L 1985 Experimental investigation of truck tire inflation pressure on pavement-tire contact area and pressure distribution. University of Texas, Austin, Texas, USA, Center for Transportation Research

    Google Scholar 

  11. Sebaaly P E and Tabatabaee N 1989 Effect of tire pressure and type on response of flexible pavement. Transp. Res. Rec. 1227. Transportation Research Board. Washington D.C. pp. 115-127

  12. Van Vuuren D J 1974 Relationship between tire inflation pressure and mean tire contact pressure. National Institute for Road Research, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Report RR 192, Pretoria, South Africa

  13. Huhtala M, Pihlajamaki J and Pienimaki M 1989 Effects of Tires and Tire Pressures on Road Pavements. Transp. Res. Rec. 1227. Transportation Research Board. Washington D.C. pp. 107-114

  14. Yoder E J and Witczak M W 1975 Principles of Pavement Design. 2nd edn. Wiley, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  15. Bonaquist R, Churilla C and Freund D 1988 Effect of load, tire pressure, and tire type on bituminous pavement response. Transp. Res. Rec. 1207. Transportation Research Board. Washington D.C. pp. 207-216

  16. ASTM F870-94 2016 Standard practice for tread footprints of passenger car tires groove area fraction and dimensional measurements. ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA

  17. Clark R B 1989 Tires Pressures and Pavements. SAE Transactions. JSTOR. 98: 435–444

    Google Scholar 

  18. IRC 37 2018 Guidelines for the design of bituminous pavements. Indian Roads Congress. New Delhi, India

  19. Sun 2016 Structural behavior of asphalt pavements. Oxford. Butterworth-Heinemann. United Kingdom

  20. Owende P M O, Hartman A M, Ward S M, Gilchrist M D and O’Mahony M J 2001 Minimizing distress on bituminous pavements using variable tire pressure. J. Transp. Eng. ASCE. 127: 254–262

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Roberts F L, and Rosson B T 1985 Effects of higher tire pressures on strain thin AC pavements. Transp. Res. Rec. 1043. Transportation Research Board. Washington D.C. pp. 68-77

  22. Mohamed I E A and Manal A A 2014 Impact of vehicle class and tire pressure on pavement performance in MEPDG. Int. J. Eng. Res. Appl. 4: 45–57

    Google Scholar 

  23. Marshek K M, Hudson W R, Connell R B, Chen H H and Saraf C L 1986 Effect of truck tire inflation pressure and axle load on pavement performance. Transp. Res. Rec. 1070. Transportation Research Board. Washington D.C. pp. 14-21

  24. Wang F and Machemehl R B 2002 Study of Truck Tire Pressure in Texas. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Applications of Advanced Technology in Transportation. Cambridge, Massachusetts, pp. 489-496

  25. Kim O, Bell C A and Wilson J E 1989 Effect of increased truck tire pressure on asphalt concrete pavements. J. Transp. Eng. ASCE. 115: 329–350

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Park D, Amy E M, Jin-Hoon Jeong and Seung Lee 2008 Effects of tire inflation pressure and load on predicted pavement strains. Balt. J. Road Bridge Eng. 3: 181–186

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, 641004, India

    L Abinaya, A Thilagam & M R Nivitha

Authors
  1. L Abinaya
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. A Thilagam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. M R Nivitha
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M R Nivitha.

Ethics declarations

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Abinaya, L., Thilagam, A. & Nivitha, M.R. Influence of tire pressure on the rutting and fatigue life of bituminous pavement. Sādhanā 47, 71 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12046-022-01841-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12046-022-01841-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation