Fatigue Life of Asphalt Pavements on Bridge Decks

Pavement is one of the basic elements of a bridge structure. In Europe and Poland pavements for engineering objects are made in the asphalt technology. Requirements for ensuring the sustainability of the entire object also refer to pavement. Fatigue life is one of the parameter that must be satisfy but there is no requirements connected with it. It is directly related to the stresses and strains which occur in the pavement. Based on a state of art and using calculation results of software with finite element method (FEM) the strains in characteristic points of the bridge pavement were presented. Strains in pavements on the soil, concrete and steel deck were compared. One of the classic and one of the modern criteria for fatigue life were described. Calculation models for fatigue life of asphalt pavement does not classify separately bridge pavements. A typical technology and materials used in the bridge deck pavements were presented. Fatigue life of asphalt bridge pavements were estimated. The analysis of the results and evaluation of the adequacy of fatigue life models were made.