Vertical Load Impact of an Urban Front Engine Bus on the Pavement

The main objective of this paper is to present the different methods of pavement dimensioning, applied on the Brazilian roads, in order to compare the loads used in the calculation with a real application. It has been used a 4×2 vehicle with the maximum load distribution allowed in Brazil (6 tons in the front axle / 10 tons in the rear axle). It has been instrumented the rear axle with strain gauges to simulate it as a load cell. Measurements were done on a real urban application (Curitiba city - Brazil). Results showed significant differences between the load used in the Brazilian pavement dimensioning methodology and the dynamic vertical load, which could have a direct impact on the pavement lifetime. This paper was supported by three different agency / companies: UNICAMP, Volvo do Brasil and Meritor do Brasil Sistemas Automotivos Ltda.