THEORY, VALIDATION AND APPLICATION OF THE VISCO-ELASTIC MULTILAYER PROGRAM VEROAD

Abstract

VEROAD is a linear visco-elastic multilayer program. The acronym VEROAD stands for Visco-Elastic ROad Analysis Delft. The program takes fully into account both the visco-elasticity of the asphalt material and the movement of the wheel. Thus the actual time dependent displacements, stresses and strains and the permanent deformation are obtained, fully three-dimensionally. From these quantities others can be derived: the dissipated energy due to the passage of a wheel, the effect of lateral wandering on permanent deformation, the principal stresses, the rotation of the principal stresses, etc. The underlying theory is briefly described. The program has been validated by comparing the longitudinal and transverse strains measured in full scale tests with those calculated by using VEROAD. The agreement can be called excellent. The field of application is obvious. It ranges from analyzing full scale test results to pavement design, from mix design to analysis of the damaging effects of different wheel configurations. In the article also attention is paid to the experimental determination of the material parameters to be used in VEROAD.