Handbook of vehicle-road interaction

This handbook discusses tyre-road contact forces generated by heavy vehicles, their influence on road surface and bridge response and damage, as well as ways of assessing and improving vehicles so as to minimise road damage. The book is divided into eight sections: 1. provides general background material about road wear, expenditure on roads and some historical perspectives. 2. deals with vehicle dynamics and includes chapters on road surface roughness, suspension components, measuring and simulating dynamic tyre forces and a brief introduction to the subject of weigh-in-motion. 3. is concerned with the response of the guideway to heavy vehicle loads. 4. concentrates on the mechanisms of damage of flexible pavements, particularly permanent deformation and fatigue cracking. 5. discusses vehicle-guideway interactions. 6. discusses the design of suspensions to minimise road damage. 7. is concerned with the problem of assessing the road damaging potential of heavy vehicles for regulatory purposes. 8. presents conclusions and suggests areas needing further research. Lists of abbreviations, references and an index are provided in the appendices.