Shakedown analysis for pavements with cross-anisotropic materials

Shakedown analysis can provide maximum capacity of structures under cyclic loads based on elastic-plastic theory; therefore it can be used as a theoretical basis to calculate pavement design loads (shakedown limit). Existing pavement shakedown analyses were carried out by assuming the materials are isotropic; however the influence of material anisotropy was ignored. In this paper, by using static shakedown theorem and finite element analysis, a shakedown approach is developed to estimate shakedown limits of multi-layered pavements with cross-anisotropic materials. It is found that the assumption of materials isotropy may overestimate pavement capacity under traffic loads.