Tyre contact surface for the fatigue design of orthotropic steel bridge decks

The fatigue life of orthotropic steel bridge decks in road bridges depends on the load effects exerted by heavy lorries. The contact surface of tyres is one of the important variables. Measurements described in the literature demonstrate that the actual tyre contact surfaces of today's traffic representative for Europe are shorter and slightly wider than the contact surface defined for the load model in the European standard for fatigue loads in bridges - EN 1991-2. This paper derives a new, realistic tyre contact surface to be used with the tyre loads in EN 1991-2, in such a way that the load effects for fatigue are realistically captured and that the required safety level is met.

Automated summary

This paper proposes a new and more realistic model for the contact surface of tyres, in order to meet the requirements of fatigue loads in road bridges.