Author
Abstract
Presented in this paper is a new study of the AASHTO equivalency factors
of military tracked armoured vehicles on flexible pavement. Two types of military
tracked armoured vehicles were studied, namely Challenger 2 tank and MT-LB-T
tracked armoured vehicle. A measure of the damaging effect of military tracked
armoured vehicle loads was achieved by correlating their equivalent loads with the
AASHTO equivalency factors. The equivalent load was developed on the basis of
mechanistic - empirical approach. It was found that the damaging effect of the
studied military tracked armoured vehicle loads is 0.039 to 5.750 times the
damaging effect of the standard 18 kips (80 kN) axle load depending on the
thickness of asphalt layer. It was found that the damaging effect of military
tracked armoured vehicle loads on flexible pavements of major highways and
main principal roads is much more than its damaging effect on the flexible
pavement of local and secondary roads. It was found also, that tracked armoured
vehicles have a severe damaging effect on the functional serviceability of surface
asphalt layer in terms of deformation and strains due to the effect of rigid track
chain.
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