Stress Responses of Soft Ground under Vehicle and Temperature Loads Considering Pavement Thermal Sensitivity

Abstract

An analytical multilayered road system is presented to evaluate stress responses of soft ground subjected to vehicle and temperature loads, and the temperature-dependent characteristics of the asphalt pavement are also considered. The soft ground is simulated as a coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical half-space, while a thermomechanical model is applied to represent the behaviors of other road layers. Key assumptions include linear poroelastic soil behavior and idealized drainage conditions at the ground surface. A circle impact vehicle load and a sinusoidal thermal load act on the top surface. The Laplace–Hankel transform is applied to solve the whole model, and an integration process is performed to obtain the final time-domain results. It is found that the vehicle and temperature loads, as well as pavement thermal sensitivity, can all induce obvious stress responses in the soft ground. Compared to the responses induced only by the vehicle load, pore pressure amplitude in the poroelastic half-space increases by 45.4% when the temperature load is also applied, and the increase reaches 75.2% when the thermal sensitivity of the asphalt pavement is further considered.