Commercial Traffic and Roadway Requirements

The paper deals with the design of commercial vehicles in relationship to their effect on roadways. First, the forces transmitted by the tires are analyzed. Next, the resulting stresses in the roadway are discussed in terms of different types of road construction. Irregularities of the roadway are related to fluctuations in transmitted forces with the aid of a modeling system. Subsequently, the roadway deterioration is analyzed; predictability of service-life is very approximate because the associated deterioration processes and their interaction are not well understood. However, evaluation of different parameters does provide a means of comparing the effect of commercial vehicles on roadways. Such comparison assists in optimizing vehicle design with roadway construction; control of axle-loading and total weight does not in itself offer sufficient means of achieving this optimization. Nevertheless, the predominant influence of heavy vehicles suggests that improvement of this category can strongly influence road life.