A NONLINEAR THEORY FOR PREDICTING THE PERFORMANCE OF FLEXIBLE HIGHWAY PAVEMENTS

A NONLINEAR THEORY IS PROPOSED FOR THE STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF FLEXIBLE HIGHWAY PAVEMENTS. THE PROPOSED THEORY USES A NONLINEAR INCREMENTAL APPROACH BASED ON FINITE ELEMENT THEORY. THE NONLINEAR PROBLEM IS SOLVED BY APPLYING EACH LOAD REPETITION TO THE SOLID CONTINUUM IN SMALL INCREMENTS. THIS PROCEDURE, IN EFFECT, REDUCES THE NONLINEAR PROBLEM TO THAT OF SUCCESSIVELY SOLVING A LARGE NUMBER OF ELASTIC PROBLEMS. A PLASTIC LOAD CONCEPT USING CUMULATIVE PLASTIC STRAIN IS DEVELOPED THAT MAKES POSSIBLE PLACING ALL OF THE NONLINEAR EFFECTS IN THE LOAD VECTOR. USING THIS APPROACH, THE SYSTEM STIFFNESS MATRIX NEEDS TO BE DECOMPOSED ONLY ONCE. AS THE EXTERNAL LOAD IS INCREMENTALLY INCREASED OR DECREASED AND THE MODULUS CHANGES ESSENTIALLY ALL THAT HAS TO BE DONE TO CALCULATE THE NEW DISPLACEMENTS OF THE SYSTEM IS TO SOLVE AN UPPER TRIANGULAR MATRIX BY BACK-SUBSTITUTION. THE PLASTIC LOAD APPROACH USING THE CONCEPT OF CUMULATIVE PLASTIC STRAINS IS PERFECTLY GENERAL, AND THE THEORY IS APPLIED TO PROBLEMS INVOLVING THE APPLICATION OF LARGE NUMBERS OF WHEEL LOAD REPETITIONS AND VISCOELASTIC CREEP LOADINGS. /AUTHOR/

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/hrr/1970/337/337-003.pdf
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Paper sponsored by Committee on Theory of Pavement Design and presented at the 49th Annual Meeting. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • Barksdale, Richard D
• Publication Date: 1970

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: pp 22-39
• Monograph Title: Theory of pavement design
• Serial:
  • Highway Research Record
  • Issue Number: 337
  • Publisher: Highway Research Board

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accelerated tests; Creep; Experiments; Finite element method; Flexible pavements; Nonlinear systems; Repeated loads; Structural analysis; Viscoelasticity; Wheel loads
• Uncontrolled Terms: Model tests
• Old TRIS Terms: Finite elements
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00205864
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Jun 11 1971 12:00AM