Dynamic response of asphalt pavement under vibration rolling load: Theory and calibration

Abstract Vibrating compaction is a critical procedure to guarantee the quality of asphalt pavement, and the dynamic response of asphalt pavement is a complicate problem in the process of vibration rolling. This paper aims to theoretically investigate the dynamic response regulation and influencing factors of pavement under the moving vibration load. Firstly, based on the viscoelastic theory of multi-layer system, the dynamic response governing equation of asphalt pavement is established under the vibration load, the governing equation was then simplified by the two-dimensional Fourier transform method. Further, the stiffness matrices of the single-layer and multi-layer pavement structures are obtained by using the dynamic stiffness method. Consequently, the exact solution is obtained for the plane strain problem by programming and validated with the finite element results, which is proved to be more efficient in the calculation. Moreover, the model is calibrated by the field test to determine the wave number and dynamic modulus during the vibration rolling process. Subsequently, the effects of material and load frequency are investigated on the dynamic response in terms of acceleration and displacement. The results show that both of the acceleration and displacement of pavement surface vibrate periodically with the vibrating load, and the changing regulations of the acceleration and displacement with loading time can be divided into three stages corresponding to the engineering practice such as rapid decline, slow decline and stable stages. Finally, the influencing factors are analyzed in terms of the modulus of materials (i.e., surface course and base course) and the frequency of load. It shows that the peak values of acceleration and displacement of the pavement surface change significantly and nonlinearly with the material modulus in the form of power function. Meanwhile, the influence of vibrating frequency is also significant and a quadratic relationship between the acceleration/displacement and frequency. This paper provides an insight into understanding the dynamic response of pavement under vibration rolling condition to some extent, and potentially provides theoretical and technical support for accurately determining and modifying some indexes that characterize the compaction degree of asphalt pavement.