ISGTI 2018

7-8April2018, IIT Delhi, India

Analytical Pavement Design for Super Single Tires in Place of Dual Tire Using
IIT Pave Software with a Case Study
Swapan K. Bagui, Chief General Manager
Kaushal Verma, Design Engineer
Intercontinental Consultants & Technocrats Pvt. Ltd., A-8 Green Park, New Delhi 110016, India,
E-mail: swapanbagui@gmail.com; kkv.goal@gmail.com

Atasi Das, General Manager

GR Infraprojects Ltd, Corporate Office, Plot No. 11, Sector B-1, VasantKunj, New Delhi-110070
E-mail: atasi.d@grinfra.com

ABSTRACT: Super single tires are becoming popular in various countries abroad because of the several advantages
offered by such tires over dual wheel tires. However, on the other hand, they have become a matter of great concern for
highway engineers because of increased damaging effect on the pavements by such super single tires. Super single tires
induce higher contact stresses on the pavements and thus reduce the life of the pavements. There have been many
studies worldwide to assess the damaging effects caused by use of such tires on the pavements. This paper discusses
about effects of super single tires compared to dual wheel tires based on analytical studies using IIT Pave Software.
Fatigue life, top down cracking, rut life have been compared in both the cases. Fatigue damage analysis for higher axle
load is also presented in this paper. Combined damage analyses have been conducted considering both dual and wide
single tire.

Keywords:Wide base single tire, Equivalent Tire, IIT Pave, Legal load
1. Introduction
The use of ―wide base‖ or ―super single‖ tires in lieu of
the conventional dual wheel configuration has become
increasingly popular in USA, Canada, South Africa and
Europe. The reasons provided by the tire manufacturers
for the increased popularity of these tires include lower
rolling resistance, reduced dead weight, and reduction in
fuel consumption, small total contact area, improved
riding qualities, off-the-road mobility, and a high-load
front axle capacity. However, super single tires induce
higher contact stresses, which might be two times the
inflation pressure, resulting in more adverse effects on
the pavement structure. This high contact stress can cause
high stresses in the deep pavement layer, which is likely
to damage the subgrade layer. Therefore, it becomes
necessary to evaluate the destructive effect of trucks
utilizing this type of tire with that induced by the
conventional dual wheel configuration. Many studies
have been conducted across the world in this regard. All
this information and discussions of super single tire
compared with the effects caused by the conventional
dual wheel tires have been discussed by Mittal and Bose
(2013).
2. Advantages and Disadvantages of Wide Base
Super Single Tire
Wide-base tire technology has the potential to reduce
vehicle fuel consumption and Green House Gas (GHG)
emissions due to less rolling resistance at the tire-
pavement interface. The impact of wide-base tires on two
typical flexible pavement structures (full-depth and thin
asphalt pavements) through accelerated pavement testing
(APT) and advanced finite element (FE) modeling have
been studied. Three tire configurations (dual, the first
generation 425, and the new generation 455 wide-base
tires) and various pavement sections with different
asphalt layer and granular base layer thicknesses were
considered. Particularly, the advanced modeling
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simulates realistic tire-pavement interaction and
considers appropriate material properties for each
pavement layer. It is evident from the study that the wide-
base 425 tire causes the greatest pavement damage
among the three tire configurations. The wide-base 455
tire was found to cause greater bottom-up fatigue
cracking and increased potential for subgrade rutting than
the dual-tire assembly on most tested sections except the
thin pavement section with the thickest granular base
layer. However, the impact of wide-base tires on fatigue
cracking and subgrade rutting potential becomes less
significant with a stronger pavement structure. The FE
modeling results indicate that compared to the dual-tire
assembly, the wide-base 455 tire results in similar or less
primary rutting potential in thin asphalt pavements and
less near-surface cracking potential in thick asphalt
pavements by Bell etal(2006).
3. Wheel Load and Tire Pressure
Tires influence the quality of the surface (wearing)
coarse. In fact, the magnitude of the vertical pressure at
any depth of soil subgrade or pavement section depends
upon the surface pressure as well as on the total wheel
load.
The concern in Oregon in the early 1990s that the use of
single tire on the non-steering axles of trucks and leading
to increased damage to pavements needed attention. An
associated concern was that tire pressures may be
increasing and contributing to increased damage. Single
tires are used in two ways on non-steering axles. Wider
than- normal tires (wide-base) may be used instead of
traditional dual tire assemblies, or singling out of dual
tires may be done, where the inside tire of the duals is
removed. An extensive survey of trucks was conducted
σZ = q [1 – z3 / (a2 +z2)3/2] (1)
Where,
σZ= Vertical stress at depth z,
q = Surface pressure or contact pressure, and
a = Radius of loaded area.
Generally, the wheel load is to be distributed over a
circular area. But through many measurements of the tire
imprints with different load and inflation pressure, it is
seen that the contact areas in many cases are elliptical in
shape. Three important terms related to tire pressure are
tire pressure, inflation pressure, and contact pressure.
Theoretically, all these terms are equivalent. Tire
pressure and inflation pressure mean exactly the same
thing. The contact pressure is found to be more than the
tire pressure when the tire pressure is less than 7 Kg/cm2
(100 psi) and is vice versa when the tire pressure exceeds
this value
Contact pressure can be measured by the relationship
given below.
Contact Pressure =
Where Contact Pressure is measured in units of pressure
Kg/cm2, load on the wheel is expressed in Kilograms or
pounds, and contact area is denoted in cm2.
The ratio of contact pressure to tire pressure is defined as
Rigidity Factor (RF). An RF value of 1.0 would be the
typical average tire pressure of 7 Kg/cm2. This value is
higher than unity for lower tire pressure and less than
unity for tire pressure higher than 7 Kg/cm2. The Rigidity
Factor (RF) depends upon the degree of tension
developed in the walls of the tires.
Tire contact pressure is the actual pressure measured
where the tire contacts the pavement surface. Three
assumptions are usually made regarding tire contact
pressure in most pavement response studies. These
include tire pressure is uniform; it acts on the circular
area, and it is equal to the tire inflation pressure. This
simplified theoretical analysis is believed to be of
sufficient accuracy for design work. However, premature
failure of some pavements designed according to these
assumptions can cause an underestimation of the strains
and stresses due to truck tire loading in those studies by
Roberts (1986).
The correlation between inflation pressure and actual
contact pressure is a vague area of tire performance that
is not well understood. Due to the many different types of
tires and their construction, a reliable model has not been
developed to predict actual tire contact pressure.
Analytical studies of truck tires show that the contact
pressure can be two times the inflation pressure where the
tire contacts the road surface. Tire inflation pressures of
75 psi (517 kPa) and 125 psi (862 kPa) resulted in peak
contact pressures of 150 psi (1034 kPa) and 220 psi (1517
kPa) respectively by Roberts (1986).
4. Analytical Study
Experimental works have been carried out throughout the
world as reported by Mittal and Bose (2013) and finite
element program developed to verify experimental work.
Very limited analytical works have been conducted using
IIT Pave Software in Indian context. Therefore, present
objective of the research work is to carry out analytical
study using IIT Pave Software.
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5. Proposed Methodology
One typical case study is considered with adoption of
different pavement compositions and subgrade CBR
Values as presented in Table 1.
Table 1 Pavement Compositions
Pavement Composition(mm)
Case CBR BC DBM WMM GSB
1 10 40 50 250 200
It is assumed that Single axle Dual Tire and single axle
with wide super single tire will plyon the road with the
proposed pavement compositions and subgrade CBR
mentioned in Table 1.
Axle is assumed as 80 KN load will ply on the road.Tire
pressure is taken as 0.56 MPa for all analyses, which are
to be carried out. Tire pressure will be increased to carry
higher load to avoid damage of the vehicle tire.
IIT Pave Software has been used for analysis and
KENPAVE Software also used for comparing.
For dual tire for axle load of 80 KN, wheel load
considered for analysis is 80/4=20 KN.
For same load, single axle with wide single tire, wheel
load is 80/2= 40 KN
Following damage/ failure will be considered for
comparing analysis of dual tire and wide base single tire:
Top Down Cracking
Bottom up Cracking /Fatigue Life
Secondary Rutting
Primary Rutting
5.1 Damage Analysis
The damage ratio for each failure mechanism is
calculated as follows:
Dr= (2)
Where
Dr = damage ratio between the wide-base and dual-tire
configurations for the considered failure mechanism.
Nd = number of cycles to failure for dual tires for top
down cracking; and
Nw = number of cycles to failure for wide-base tire for
top down cracking.
5.2 Damage Analysis for Top Down Cracking
Tensile strain and compressive strain are calculated for
case study with axle load 80 KN and presented below. It
appears that the high tensile strains induced by tires at the
top of the pavement layer are the most recognized factor
that contributes to this failure mechanism. On the basis of
this fact, analysis of the surface tensile strain developing
around the tire is considered and used to measure the
damage of the tire in terms of top-down cracking. To
date, a transfer function does not exist to determine the
number of cycles to failure through a top-down cracking
mechanism. In this study, considering that top-down
cracking could be dealt with as a special type of fatigue
cracking, the fourth power law is assumed as valid to
Analytical Pavement Design for Super Single Tires in Place of Dual Tire Using IIT Pave Software with a Case Study

relate the damage between the wide-base and dual-tire 18

configurations to the surface tensile strain, as follows: 16
Single Tire
DRtd= (3) 14

Design Life (MSA)

DRtd = damage ratio between the wide-base and dual-tire 12
configurations for the top-down failure mechanism, 10
€w = surface tensile strain for wide-base tire, and 8
€d = surface tensile strain for dual tires. 6
4
The single wide-base tire eliminates the central zone of 2
tensile strain, and therefore, top-down cracks may appear 0
only at the outside edges of the tire.If over the pavement 80 100 120 140 160
service life the dual tires would result in four Cracks and Axle Load (KN)
the wide-base tires would result in two cracks, the
serviceability index of the pavement exposed to dual tires Fig. 1Damaging Effect of Single Axle with Conventional
would be less than the serviceability index of the Dual Tire and Single Axle with Single Wide Base Tire
pavement exposed to wide-base tires. However, the Tensile strain at the top of bituminous surface has been
timing of the appearance of the crack is unknown and determined at different radial distances for both tire types
depends on the applicable pavement design; this fact was and it is found that critical point is at the center for both
considered through the ratio of strain raised to the fourth tires as shown in Fig.2. Strain at this point for singlewide
power.Thus,Factor0.5 works out (2/4=0.5) for analysis as base tire is higher than that of the conventional dual tire
mentioned in Equation3. and vice versa for other radial distances. Similar behavior
has also been found at the bottom of bituminous layer
DRtd=0.5 × (388.6/315.4)4=1.55 with varying radial distances as shown in
Fig.3.Therefore, it may be concluded that effect of
5.3 Fatigue Cracking/ Bottom up Cracking damaging effect of single tire is more than that of
To quantify load-associated with fatigue pavement conventional dual tire.
damage caused by different axle configurations, a fatigue
law suggested in IRC:37-2012 has been adopted in this
study to predict the number of load repetitions to cause Tensile Strain,Single Tire(Micro strain
Tensile Strain,Dual Tire(Micro strain
20 % fatigue cracking in the wheel path: 450
Tensile Strain at Surface(Microstrain)

Nf = (4) 400
350
(80 per cent reliability)
300
Nf= fatigue life in number of cumulative standard axles,
εt= Maximum Tensile strain at the bottom of the 250

bituminous layer, and 200

MR= resilient modulus of the bituminous layer. 150
100
Fatigue Life =16.1 MSA, Rut Life= 114.9 MSA 50
Fatigue Life =12.6 MSA,Rut life= 69.5 MSA 0
Equivalency Factor/damaging factor ratio, -490 -335 -180 -25 130 285 440
DRfc =16.1/12.6 =1.27 (5)
Horizontal Distance (mm)

Reduction of pavement life=(16.1-12.6)/16.1=21.7%. Fig.2 Distribution of Tensile Strain at Surface of Asphalt

It is also assumed that radius will be constant with with Different Radial Distances
increasing axle load; only tire pressure will be increased.
Basic tire pressure will be increased to Tensile Strain,Single Tire(Micro strain
Revised Tire pressure= 0.56×axle Load/80. Tensile Strain,Dual Tire(Micro strain
400
For 100KN axle load revised tire
Tensile Strain at Surface(Microstrain)

pressure=0.56×100/80=0.7 MPa. 350

300
Fatigue life 5.4 MSA, Fatigue life 6.8 MSA
250
For 120 axle load, single tire life 2.64 MSA,dual tire life
=3.3 MSA. For 140 axle load, single tire life 1.08 200
MSA,dual tire life =0.9 MSA.Typical fatigue life for dual 150
tire and singe wide tire is shown in Fig.1. From Fig.1, it 100
is observed that fatigue life decreases non-linearly with
50
increasing axle load.At higher axle load of 160 KN or
more, damaging effect of road is more or less same for 0
conventional dual tire and wide base single tire. -490 -335 -180 -25 130 285 440
Horizontal Distance (mm)

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 Fig. 3 Distribution of Tensile Strain at Depth 90
mm(Bottom of Asphalt) with Different Radial Distances Table 2 Vesey‘s Rutting Parameter
Temperature (0 C )
5.4 Secondary Rutting
The VESYS method was used in developing the Layer Rutting 15.5 25.6 30.0 35.0
pavement performance model for permanent deformation. Parameter
It is assumed that the permanent strain is proportional to Asphalt α 0.75 0.74 0.73 0.72
the resilient strain. The permanent strain at the Nth load
Concrete µ 0.30 0.31 0.32 0.34
application can be expressed as follows:
p (N) rN (6) α 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75
Granular
Where µ 0.28 0.28 0.28 0.28
p (N) = permanent strain due to single-load application, α 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75
r = resilient strain at 200th repetition, Subgrade
N = number of load applications, and µ 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02
α, μ = permanent deformation parameters.
The cumulative permanent deformation can be obtained Secondary rut life has been determined based on 20 mm
by integrating Equation 6: rut depth and taking maximum vertical compressive
N1 strain value at the centre. Secondary rut life is found as
p r 1 (7) 98 MSA for dual tires and 41 MSA for Wide base single
tire. Hence, Damaging factor, DRsr=98/41=2.31.
Incremental permanent strain for a single-load application
can be obtained by differentiating Equation 7: 5.5 Primary Rutting
p 5.5.1 Rutting in Pavement
r N (8) Rutting is the permanent deformation in pavement
N
occurring longitudinally along the wheel path. It may
partly be caused by deformation in the subgrade and
F(N) is defined as the fractional increase of the total
other non-bituminous layers which would reflect to the
strain (8) and is expressed as follows:
overlying bituminous layers to take a deformed shape.
p 1 p 1 The bituminous mixes also may undergo equal amount of
F(N) N
r p N r N rutting due to secondary compaction and shear
deformation under heavy traffic load and higher
This simplification is based on the assumption that the temperature. Excessive rutting greatly reduces the
incremental permanent strain is much smaller than the serviceability of the pavement and therefore, it has to be
resilient strain. The rut depth is limited to a certain value to maintain a good riding
N quality. In these guidelines, the limiting rutting of 20mm
z is recommended in 20 percent of the length for design
RD(N) F(N)dN c z(z)d
0 traffic up to 20 msa and 10 percent of the length for the
0
design traffic beyond that.
Where z is the depth of the pavement layer and c is the 5.5.2 Rutting model
vertical compressive strain at depth z. Like the fatigue model, rutting model also was developed
Finally rut depth is determined as mentioned here in: in the R-56(56) project using the pavement performance
i nN dl data collected during the R-6(59) and R-19(60) studies at
RD(N) iN dN c (z)dz 80 per cent reliability levels. The two equations are given
i 10 d i below:
N = 4.1656 x 10-08[1/εv]4.5337 (10)
i n (1 ) dl Where,
iN
RD(N) c (z)dz (9)
N = Number of cumulative standard axles, and
i 1 `1 d i εv= Vertical strain in the subgrade

Since no laboratory tests for determining the VESYS Damage Ratio due to primary rutting is calculated and
rutting parameters were performed on the pavement presented below:
materials in these test sections, those values were adopted PR pr= 114.9/69.5=1.65 (11)
from the work by Park (2000) on AC and the paper by
Kenis (1978) on base and subgrade materials. The rutting 5.6 Combined Damage Ratio
parameters for AC were determined on the basis of the To calculate the combined damage ratio (overall damage
measured AC mid-depth temperature. Table 2 shows the factor considering the four pavement failure mechanisms)
VESYS rutting parameters for each layer material.IIT between the wide-base and dual-tire configurations, a
PAVE Software has been used to determine rut depth. distribution function was used:
Vertical compressive strain at mid depth of granular layer CDR a1DRtd a2 DRfc a3SRsr a4 PRpr (12)
and subgrade has been evaluated. Where,

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Analytical Pavement Design for Super Single Tires in Place of Dual Tire Using IIT Pave Software with a Case Study

CDR = combined damage ratio between the wide-base 6. Cumulative Fatigue Damage for Bituminous
and dual-tire configurations, Mixes
DRtd = damage ratio between the wide-base and dual-tire A flexible pavement is subjected to spectrum of axle
configurations for surface-initiated loads applied through single, tandem and tridem axles
top-down cracking, and their magnitudes can be much higher than the legal
DRfc = damage ratio between the wide-base and dual tire axle load limits. Fatigue damage is large due to heavier
configurations for fatigue cracking, axles compared to those with lower loads. Axle load
DRsr = damage ratio between the wide-base and dual tire equivalency factor for converting all axles of different
configurations for secondary rutting, and magnitudes into repetitions of equivalent standard single
DRpr = damage ratio between the wide-base and dual tire axle load of magnitude 80 kN is not strictly valid. It is
configurations for sprimary rutting, and necessary to use principle of cumulative damage to use
a1, a2, a3 and a4 = distribution factors to account for the for rigid pavements to evaluate safety of structure from
criticality of each failure mechanism. fatigue consideration.
The fatigue damage principle may be stated as:
The distribution factors (ai) were determined from a
logarithmic distribution function,
Cumulative fatigue damage = (15)
1
Where,
LogNi ni = number of expected axle load repetitions of load
ai i 3 (13)
1 level i
Ni= Fatigue life at load level i
i 1 LogNi k = number of temperature levels in different seasons.
Fatigue damage is to be computed at different
This makes the use of a logarithmic transfer function temperature intervals.
more appropriate than a linear transfer by Al-Qadi et al
(2005). They proposed values of a1, a2, a3 and a4 are 0.23, 7. Conclusions
0.18, 0.32, and 0.25 respectively for analysis. A simple case study has been considered for evaluation
of damage analysis for using dual tire and super single
On the basis of the calculated combined damage ratios, wide tire. The conclusions are specific for this particular
equivalent loads were determined to balance the damage case and conclusions may vary for other cases which may
induced by the new generations of wide-base tire with the be evaluated after detailed analysis. However, there are
dual-tire assembly. This assumes that the fourth power several advantages for use of super single wide base tire
law, which is usually used for such application, is valid: i.e., lower rolling resistance, reduced dead weight, and
Pmax=P×(CDR)-0.25 (14) reduction in fuel consumption, low total contact area,
improved riding qualities, off-the-road mobility, and a
Where Pmax is the maximum load on a single tire to high-load front axle capacity. Based on this present study,
cause the same pavement damage induced by a dual-tire following conclusions may be drawn:
configuration and CDR is the combined damage ratio for Super single wide tire damages more than that of
the considered vehicle speed. dual tire. Fatigue life decreases with increasing axle
CDR is determined and presented in Table 3. load. Fatigue life reduced to 78 % for using super
single wide base i.e., 22 % fatigue life reduces. It
Table 2 Determination of CDR varies non-linearly.
Damaging Factor Coefficients CDR Rut life also decreases. It is found that rut life
reduces to 60 % for using super single wide base
DRtd= 1.55 ‗a1= 0.25 0.39 tire.
Top down cracking life also reduces to 65 %
DRfc= 1.27 ‗a2= 0.18 0.23 approximately.
Secondary rut life also reduces to 42% for using
SRsr= 2.39 ‗a3= 0.32 0.76 super single wide base tire.
.
PRpr= 1.65 ‗a4= 0.25 0.41
If road agency cost is considered, use of super singe
1.79 wide base tire is not viable but if it is considered
Combined CDR=
based on total transportation cost, use of this tire
Legal Load for Wide Base Single Tire= 86.41 KN will be viable and may be considered in Indian
Context.
Legal load for conventional Tire is 10.2 Ton/100 KN.
Therefore, legal load for wide super single tire= References
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