Abstract: The National Road Transport Commission (NRTC) and Austroads are developing a Performance Based Standards (PBS) approach to the regulation of heavy vehicles in Australia. There has been general agreement to adopt the performance measure of Gross Mass per vehicle Standard Axle Repetitions (SAR) for PBS vehicles. The calculation of SAR requires the use of equivalent loads of common axle groups (single axle, tandem axle, tri-axle and quad axle), which cause same damage as a Standard Axle. Currently, equivalent loads for quad axle have not yet been developed for use in the Austroads pavement design procedures for flexible pavements (Austroads 1992, 2001). This paper provides a summary of current equivalent axle loads being adopted for flexible pavements by different road authorities throughout the world. In addition, it examines various experimental and theoretical procedures for deriving equivalent loads for various axle groups. This paper makes a number of recommendations on theoretical procedures to estimate equivalent loads for quad axle as well as interim equivalent loads for a quad axle that can be adopted in the Austroads pavement design procedures for the calculation of SARs for flexible pavements.
Publication Year: 2003
Publication Date: 2003-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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