Effects of the tire-pavement contact pressure on asphalt pavement

The interfacial pressure between tire and the pavement exhibits a highly non-uniform distribution over the contact area. It is different from the uniformly distributed vertical stress distributions traditionally used for pavement analysis. On the basis of abundant literature, simplified load models have been put forward according to the tire tread patterns. And the response of the pavement under the simplified load models has been obtained through finite element method. Studies have shown that the influence of different load models is remarkable near the contact area. There is a significant difference between the responses computed with the circular uniform and non-uniform contact pressure distributions. These results may be a possible explanation of near-surface pavement distress evolution in asphalt pavement.