Fatigue and Rutting Life Design of Layered Flexible Pavements Via Advanced MultiSmart3D

This paper introduces a graphical user interface (GUI) built on the foundation of MultiSmart3D_Dynamics (or simply MultiSmart3D) code. Through this GUI, we calculate the pavement design parameters associated with fatigue cracking and rutting deformation. Besides the time-harmonic loading case, the moving loading case is further analyzed based on a simple relation between the moving velocity and frequency. Several numerical examples pertaining to static and dynamic (time-harmonic and moving) responses are studied for two typical pavement structures in Taiwan. The efficiency and accuracy of MultiSmart3D GUI are validated by comparing the present results with those from experimental loading frequency and real-world frequency. Our results reveal that the thickness of the asphalt concrete and base layers have a significant impact on fatigue and rutting lives. In addition, we have found that incorporating dynamic load into the structure may offer potential benefits in terms of cost reduction for optimizing the lifespan of the pavement.