Traffic Loading

Traffic Loading
• Different types of vehicles
• Cycles
• Two-wheelers
• Passenger Cars
• Vans
• Buses
• Single Unit Trucks
• Multi-unit Trucks
• For pavement design, commercial vehicles (laden
weight more than 3 Tons) only are considered
Traffic Loading – Commercial Vehicle
Categories (IRC:3-1983)
Different Vehicle Types
 Traffic Loading
• Gross Vehicle Weight is transmitted to the
pavement through Axles/Tyres
• Legal Axle loads: (MoRTH Circular No.RT
11028/11/2017-MVL dated 07-08-2018)
– Single axle single wheel 3.0 tonnes
– Single axle two wheels 7.0 tonnes
– Single axle 4 wheels (Dual) 11.5 tonnes
– Tandem Axle with eight wheels 21 tonnes
– Tridem Axle with 12 wheels 27 tonnes
 Traffic Loading
• Legal Axle loads:
– Single axle two wheels 7.0 tonnes

– Single axle 4 wheels (Dual) 11.5 tonnes

 Legal Axle Loads
• Legal Axle loads:
– Tandem Axle with eight wheels 21.0 tonnes

– Tridem Axle with 12 wheels 27.0 tonnes

 Legal Axle Loads
• Legal Axle loads: Some other configurations
– Tandem Axle with four wheels

– Tridem Axle with 6 wheels

 Traffic Loading
• The load is transferred to the pavement through
pneumatic tyres over contact areas which are not
circular and at a contact stress which is not uniform
• Besides vertical, horizontal forces are also applied at
the surface
• The duration of load application on an element in the
pavement varies depending on the location of the
element in the pavement and the speed of the vehicle
• The rest period between successive load pulses
depends on the flow rate
Tyre Imprints
Load Transfer through Wheels
Pneumatic Tyres – Inflated with air
Three parameters need to be considered
• Total wheel load
• Shape of Contact area
• Distribution of pressure over the contact area
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Load Transfer through wheels

The Pressure distribution (vertical, centripetal or

unidirectional) is normally not uniform

Normally only uniformly distributed vertical surface

stress equal to tyre pressure is considered for
analysis
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Load Contact Area
Shape of contact area
depends on
• Inflation pressure
• Tyre age
• Pavement surface

Typical Tyre Imprint

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Shape of Contact Area

Different shapes are considered for analysis

• Circular
• Rectangular
• Rectangular with semi-circular ends
• More exact shapes for rigorous analysis
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Circular Contact Area

Area (A) = wheel load (P) / contact pressure (p)

For Circular contact area, radius of contact area
is obtained as
a = (1/p)(P/p)0.5
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Contact Area - Rectangle with circular ends

0.6 L

A = Contact area = 0.5227 L2

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Rectangular Contact Area

Area = 0.5227 L2 0.6 L

0.8712 L

Equivalent Area
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Design Loading Considerations

• Traffic loads applied over several years (design life

period) – traffic volumes normally increase each
year
• Vehicles on a given road carry different loads
• Vehicles on different facilities carry different loads
• The wheel loads are applied over different portions
of the pavement and not at a single location.
• The manner of transmission of load to the
pavement depends on the speed of the vehicle
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Design Traffic - Traffic Forecast
• Pavement is designed to carry traffic loads
over a specified period (design life)

• Thus, it is essential to have a good estimate of

the total number of vehicles expected to use
the facility during the design life period
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Traffic Forecast

• It will also help in design if the traffic volumes

during different periods (even on an yearly
basis) of the design life can be estimated

• These estimates can be done from the traffic

volumes prevailing in a base year and by
selecting appropriate growth factors and
projection techniques.
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Traffic Forecast
A typical approach followed by Indian Roads
Congress (IRC:37) for projection of traffic over
design life period is

Cumulative traffic (commercial vehicles) for

design period

N = 365 x A x { (1+r)n – 1 }
r
where, A = Initial design traffic in the year of completion of
construction in terms of number of commercial vehicles/ day
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Traffic Forecast
r = annual growth rate of commercial vehicles
expressed as a fraction.
n = design period (years)

The traffic in the year of completion of construction is

estimated using the expression

A = P (1+r)x
where, P = Number of commercial vehicles/day as per
last count
x = No. years between the last count and the year of
completion of construction.
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Traffic Forecast
The Cumulative traffic (commercial vehicles) for
design period, N will have to be adjusted for

• directional distribution of traffic

• lateral placement characteristics of wheels on
the pavement
• load spectrum

to get the design traffic

 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Lateral Distribution of wheel loads
• All the commercial vehicles do not take the same
lateral position of the highway

• Depending on the type of facility (two-way, multi-

lane), number of lanes, etc the paths that the wheels
of commercial vehicles tread differ

• As a result all the wheels of all the commercial

vehicles utilizing the pavement during the design
period do not stress the same point on the pavement

• Each part of the pavement gets different repetitions

of loads
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Lateral Distribution

Four-lane divided
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IRC Recommendations (IRC:37-2018)

Single – lane roads

design based on total number of commercial
vehicles in both directions

Intermediate – lane roads (5.5 m)

75 % of two-way commercial traffic

Two-lane Single carriageway roads

design based on 50 % of the total number of
commercial vehicles in both directions.
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

IRC Recommendations
Four-lane Single carriageway roads
design based on 40 % of the total number of
commercial vehicles in both directions.

Dual carriageway roads

design of dual two-lane carriage way roads should
be based on 75 % of the number of commercial
vehicles in each direction. For dual three-lane
carriageway and dual four-lane carriageway, the
distribution factor will be 60 % and 45 %
respectively.
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Load consideration in Design

• Different approaches
•Fixed Vehicle
• Variable Traffic and Vehicle
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Fixed Vehicle Approach for Design

• Design is governed by the number of repetitions of a
standard vehicle or axle
• 18-kip (80 kN) single axle is considered to be the
standard axle load
• Axles that are not either single or not equal to 80kN
are converted into equivalent standard (80kN) axle
load using Equivalent Axle load Factor (EALF)
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Fixed Vehicle Approach for Design

• Multiplying the repetitions of a given axle load by the
EALF gives the equivalent number of 80kN axle load
repetitions
• Sum of the equivalent repetitions obtained for all the
axle loads anticipated (during the design period) is
used as design parameter
• Most design methods follow this approach
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Variable Vehicle and Traffic

• Variations in loads and repetitions of each individual
load are considered important for design
• No need to deal traffic either in terms of ESWL or
ESAL
• Normally used with procedures adopting cumulative
damage approach
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Equivalent Single Wheel Load (ESWL)

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Equivalent Axle Load Factors (EALF)

• In some design methods, pavements are designed

for a selected number of repetitions of a standard
load (Standard axle load – 80kN)
• EALFs are used to covert different axle loads into
equivalent repetitions of standard axle.
• EALF defines the damage caused to the pavement
by one application of the axle load under
consideration relative to the damage caused by a
single application of a standard axle
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Equivalent Axle Load Factors (EALF)

• Design based on the total number of applications

of standard axle load during the design period
(ESAL)
m
ESAL = S Fini
I

m = number of axle load groups

Fi = EALF for the ith-axle load group
ni = number of applications of the ith group
during the design period
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Equivalent Axle Load Factors (EALF)

• For designing pavements, it is necessary to have

information on EALFs and the expected axle load
spectrum for the design period
• Axle load spectrum – number of passes of axles
for a different groups of axle loads (0-5 kN, 5-
10kN, etc)
• EALF (relative damaging effect) is a function of
the type of pavement, composition and strength
of pavement and criterion defining performance
(damage).
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
EAL Factors
• EALFs are usually obtained from field
observation of performance of pavements
carrying different types of axle loads
• The EALFs obtained from the AASHO road test
are more commonly used
• EALFs can also be obtained from theoretical
exercise using appropriate mechanistic criteria
• EALFs are different for different types of
pavements and for different performance criteria
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AASHO EAL Factors
• The AASHO Road Experiment resulted in ESAL
factors as a function of the axle configuration,
load, pavement strength (structural number or
slab thickness), terminal condition of the
pavement
• A simplification of this is the Fourth power law
given as :
ESAL factor = (axle load / standard axle load)4

Example :160kN, 80 kN comparison

ESAL factor = (160/ 80)4
= 16
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AASHO EAL Factors
• For converting the repetitions of other axle types
(other than single axle with dual wheels, which is
considered as the standard configuration), the
following expressions are used
(a) For single axle with single wheels
ESAL factor = (Weight on Single axle (kN)/ 65)4
(b) For single axle with Dual wheels
ESAL factor = (Weight on Single axle (kN)/ 80)4
(c) For Tandem axle with Dual wheels
ESAL factor = (Weight on Tandem axle (kN)/148)4
(d) For Tridem axle with Dual wheels
ESAL factor = (Weight on Tridem axle (kN)/ 224)4
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
AASHO EAL Factors (Flexible Pavements)
Axle Load Structural Number
(kips) 1 2 3 4 5 6
2 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002
12 0.16 0.18 0.19 0.18 0.17 0.17
18 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00
24 3.71 3.62 3.43 3.33 3.40 3.51
36 24.2 23.3 21.16 19.28 19.02 19.93
40 39.57 38.02 34.34 30.92 30.04 31.25

Pt = 2.0
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
AASHO EAL Factors (Rigid Pavement)
Axle Load Slab Thickness, inches
(kips) 6 7 8 9 10 11
2 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002
12 0.19 0.18 0.18 0.18 0.17 0.17
18 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00
24 3.37 3.34 3.40 3.47 3.51 3.53
36 20.07 19.3 19.16 19.53 20.14 20.71
40 32.18 30.85 30.41 30.75 31.58 32.57

Pt = 2.0
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Axle Load Measurement
• To estimate the total projected repetitions of
commercial traffic in terms of the repetitions of a
standard load unit (standard axle load) it is necessary
to have an estimate of the axle load spectrum besides
the EALFs.
• Axle load spectrum is obtained by conducting axle
load survey of commercial vehicles
• Measurement of axle loads of a sample of commercial
vehicles plying on a given facility
• Conducted with Portable weigh Pads placed on the
site
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Axle Load Survey
• Adequate sample is selected
• Usually only wheel loads are measured
• Axle load = 2 * wheel load
• Complete axle load can be obtained using two
weigh pads
• Commercial vehicles in both directions
measured
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Analysis of Axle load survey data
• Consider an axle load survey in which 1000 commercial
vehicles (CVs) were stopped and each axle was measured
• Total number of axles weighed = 3400
• Total number of single front axles = 1000
• Number of rear single axles with dual wheel = 1100
• Number of rear tandem axle with dual wheel = 1300
• The distribution of axle weights for each category of axle is
given in the following slides
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Analysis of Axle load survey data
Distribution of weights on Single axle with single wheels
Load 0 20 40 60
Group (kN) * to 20 to 40 to 60 to 80
Freq. 100 250 400 250
Mid Pt 10 30 50 70
EALF 0.00056 0.045377 0.350128 1.345
ESAL 0.056 11.344 140.05 336.36

* Actual grouping of weights as per IRC:37-2018 will be done with class

intervals of 10 kN, 20 kN and 30 kN respectively for single, tandem and
tridem axles

• The 1000 single axle (with single wheels) are equivalent to 487.71 standard
axles (80 kN single axle with dual wheels)
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Analysis of Axle load survey data
Distribution of weights on Single Axle with Dual wheels
Load 20 60 100 140
Group (kN) * to 60 to 100 to 140 to 180
Freq. 100 300 500 200
Mid Pt 40 80 120 160
EALF 0.0625 1.0 5.0625 16
ESAL 6.25 300 2531.25 3200

* Actual grouping of weights as per IRC:37-2018 will be done with class

intervals of 10 kN, 20 kN and 30 kN respectively for single, tandem and
tridem axles

• The 1100 single axle (with dual wheels) are equivalent to 6037.5 standard
axles (80 kN single axle with dual wheels)
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Analysis of Axle load survey data
Distribution of weights on Tandem Axle with Dual wheels
Load 40 100 160 220
Group (kN) * to 100 to 160 to 220 to 280
Freq. 150 400 600 150
Mid Pt 70 130 190 250
EALF 0.05 0.595 2.716 8.1416
ESAL 7.506 238.11 1629.7 1221.25

Actual grouping of weights as per IRC:37-2018 will be done with class

intervals of 10 kN, 20 kN and 30 kN respectively for single, tandem and
tridem axles

• The 1300 tandem axles (with dual wheels) are equivalent to 3096.6 standard
axles (80 kN single axle with dual wheels)
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Analysis of Axle load survey data
The 3400 axles are equivalent to 487.71 + 6037.5 + 3096.6 =
9621. 81 standard axles

i.e., 1000 commercial vehicles = 9621.8 standard axles

Vehicle Damage factor = 9621.8/1000 = 9.621

 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Vehicle Damage Factor (VDF)
• Used for converting a given traffic volume into
equivalent number of standard axles

• VDF is a typical value representing the loads

carried by the commercial vehicles plying on the
facility

• Determined by conducting axle load surveys