Impact of Payload Spectra of Heavy Vehicles on

Pavement Based on Weigh-in-Motion Data

Jing Ren 1; Russell G. Thompson 2; and Lihai Zhang 3
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Abstract: Truck traffic is a crucial factor that results in pavement damage. The increasing demand of freight transport contributes to rising
truck volumes. In some countries there is a trend toward using larger vehicles, and road authorities are concerned about their effect on
pavement because of the lack of pavement maintenance funding. This paper investigates the efficiency of freight transport by comparing
the effect of six-axle articulated trucks (semi-trailers) and nine-axle articulated trucks (B-doubles) with regard to pavement performance when
carrying various payloads based on weigh-in-motion data. Mathematical models were developed to help decision makers consider how to
distribute road freight, to minimize pavement damage induced by the different types of trucks. It was found that there is reduced pavement
damage when one or more of the following conditions are met: The payload of the trucks gets closer to their optimum value, the percentage of
the empty vehicles is decreased, and more freight is undertaken by B-doubles. In addition, a simplified pavement performance prediction
model was used as a basis to determine the future pavement maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) schedules, and therefore help in compar-
ing the long-term pavement treatment costs for different traffic loading scenarios. The outcome from the economic analysis shows that
there would be significant benefits in the pavement M&R costs over the pavement service life by improving the distribution of freight.
DOI: 10.1061/JPEODX.0000099. © 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Author keywords: Road freight transport; Pavement damage; Weigh-in-motion (WIM) technology; Mathematical model.

Background burden of freight transport and traffic congestion, road authorities

Road pavement infrastructure is one of the most fundamental
facilities for automobile transport system. Modernization and glob-
alization promote the higher level of daily consumption for goods,
thus increasing the demand for freight. By 2030, the freight task in
Australia is projected to nearly double, compared with the current
level, and as such, the number of heavy vehicles on Australian
roads is also set to continue to increase. In recent decades, the
trucking industry in Australia has changed significantly, with the
trend shifting toward larger vehicle fleets. Among all of the types
of large vehicles, the use of B-doubles has increased in the
Australian market, replacing the role of other popular traditional
trucks, such as semi-trailers, in the road freight transport market
since the 1990s. Moreover, it is estimated that B-doubles will con-
tinue to play a predominant role in the freight transporting industry
in the future. The prevalence of this type of vehicle is due primar-
ily to their current broad coverage of Australia’s road network.
B-doubles are now allowed to operate on all intercapital routes and
most urban arterial roads (BITRE 2011). Although the application
of larger freight vehicles provides an opportunity for relieving the
1
Research Student, Dept. of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City
Univ. of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong 999077, Hong Kong; formerly, Dept.
of Infrastructure Engineering, Univ. of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010,
Australia (corresponding author). Email: jinren6-c@my.cityu.edu.hk
2
Associate Professor, Dept. of Infrastructure Engineering, Univ. of
Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia. Email: rgthom@unimelb
.edu.au
3
Associate Professor, Dept. of Infrastructure Engineering, Univ. of
Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia. Email: lihzhang@unimelb
.edu.au
Note. This manuscript was submitted on July 29, 2017; approved on
September 10, 2018; published online on February 12, 2019. Discussion
period open until July 12, 2019; separate discussions must be submitted for
individual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Transportation
Engineering, Part B: Pavements, © ASCE, ISSN 2573-5438.
are concerned about their effect on the health of the pavement
because of their frequent road activities and budget shortfalls in the
pavement treatment activities.
Truck traffic is one of the most crucial factors for pave-
ment damage and deterioration (Austroads 2008, 2012). Normally,
freight vehicles operating on roads have various configurations and
load distributions. The concept of equivalent standard axles (ESAs)
is a well-developed and widely adopted parameter that is used by
agencies to quantify the damage induced by trucks. The ESAs are
calculated to convert the effect of trucks having different sorts of
axles (single axle, tandem axle, triaxle, and quad-axle) with various
loading magnitudes into the equivalent number of standard loads
that would be required to produce the same amount of pavement
distress. The standard load represents an axle with dual tires ap-
plying an axle load of 80 kN on the pavement (AASHTO 1993;
Austroads 2008, 2012, 2017). Therefore, to study the effect of dif-
ferent vehicle classes on the road, it is necessary to know the weight
and type of the axle groups of each individual truck.
Weigh-in-motion (WIM) technology allows detailed informa-
tion about vehicles when moving to be recorded without interrupt-
ing the traffic flow. Compared with the traditional static weigh
stations, WIM systems are safer, more efficient, and provide a
continuous method for collecting traffic data (Austroads 2000;
Farkhideh et al. 2014). The mechanism behind WIM systems is
not complicated; it uses sensors and inductive loops that are em-
bedded under the pavement. There are at least two sensors installed
for each lane of the carriageway (i.e., before and after an inductive
loop). When a vehicle passes the WIM site, the sensors are triggered
and then the vehicle information can be recorded and stored in a data
acquisition unit that allows for off-site analysis. In general, the WIM
data consist of various vehicle data, such as site, date, vehicle speed,
vehicle configuration (number of axles, number of axle groups,
and vehicle pattern), weight information [tare weight, legal weight
limitation, gross vehicle mass (GVM), weight of axles, and axle
groups] as well as ESA (Thompson et al. 2016; Ren et al. 2016).

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 There have been studies on the axle load spectra for various
types of axle groups for the purpose of pavement design (Timm
et al. 2005; Lu and Harvey 2006; Li et al. 2009). Some researchers
considered the cumulative ESA as a critical factor for developing
the optimization models (such as minimizing the costs) to design
the pavement layer thicknesses or to schedule the pavement
maintenance activities (Chootinan et al. 2006; Priya et al. 2008;
McDonald and Madanat 2011). However, there has been limited
attention in the literature that has focused on the efficiency in terms
of the level of pavement damage caused when transporting the
same amount of freight by different kinds of vehicles with different
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freight assignment. In this paper, two representative types of large
vehicles that operate in Australia are studied: semi-trailers and
B-doubles.
The overall objectives of this paper are to (1) investigate and
compare the two types of freight vehicles on pavement infra-
structure with various levels of payloads; (2) minimize the total
pavement damage by optimizing the freight assignment for trucks
based on WIM data; and (3) calculate the cost savings in the multi-
year pavement M&R activities by applying the optimized freight
arrangement.
Vehicle Configuration and Truck Factor
In this paper, ESA was applied to quantify the overall pavement
damage induced by heavy vehicles. The truck factor, also termed
the number of ESAs per individual truck, was estimated using the
recorded weights and standard loads for axle groups based on the
fourth power law developed in the United States in the 1950s. To
calculate the ESA for the truck, the recorded weights for each axle
group are divided by the standard loads for the corresponding axle
group and raised by the power of 4 and then summed together. Dual
tires were assumed to be present on all axles but the steer axle
(Thompson et al. 2016). The standard axle loads for different
axle-tire combinations in Australia are listed in Table 1.
Eqs. (1) and (2) offer examples of how to calculate the ESA for
the two types of trucks investigated in this study. Semi-trailers have
three axle groups and axle pattern “1-2-3,” representing a single
steer axle followed by a tandem axle group and then a triaxle group.
B-doubles are vehicles with four axle groups and axle pattern
“1-2-3-3,” depicting a leading single axle followed by a tandem
axle group and then two triaxle groups. Fig. 1 shows the typical
configurations of semi-trailers and B-doubles.
• Semi-trailers:




MoAG1 4 MoAG2 4 MoAG3 4
ESA ¼ þ þ ð1Þ
5.4 13.8 18.5
• B-doubles:




MoAG1 4 MoAG2 4 MoAG3 4
ESA ¼ þ þ
5.4 13.8 18.5

4
MoAG4
þ ð2Þ
18.5
where MoAG = mass of axle group.
Basic Statistics of WIM Data
The data analyzed in this paper are 1-month WIM data provided by
VicRoads (the State Road Authority of Victoria) for trucks travel-
ing on the most heavily trafficked lane of the southbound carriage-
way on the Western Ring Road (M80) between Boundary Road and
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Table 1. Standard loads for different axle-tire combinations
Axle configuration
Number Number Standard Standard
of axles of tires load (kN) load (t)
Single Single 53 5.41
Single Dual 80 8.16
Tandem Single 90 9.18
Tandem Dual 135 13.76
Tri Dual 181 18.46
Quad Dual 221 22.60
Source: Data from Austroads (2012).
Deer Park Bypass from April 1–30, 2013. This road is a divided
freeway located approximately 10 km west of the central city area
of Melbourne, which is a good representative for investigating the
features of freight vehicles due to the high level of daily truck
movements. After filtering the data records carefully and classify-
ing the trucks based on the Austroads vehicle classification system
(Austroads 2008, 2012), it was found that 77% of 1-month road
freight task in terms of weight was carried by semi-trailers and
B-doubles. Table 2 lists the detailed attributes of the WIM recorded
semi-trailers and B-doubles. The freight capacity of B-doubles in
terms of weight (46.6 t) was substantially larger than that of semi-
trailers (29.8 t). The 1-month freight task undertaken by the two
vehicle configurations was approximately 2.34 × 105 t, and the
percentage of freight carried by more than 11,200 semi-trailers
was 54%, whereas the rest was undertaken by approximately 4,200
B-doubles. The number of ESAs (overall pavement damage) for
transporting the total freight was around 3.4 × 104 , 58% of which
was caused by semi-trailers. Although the average ESA of semi-
trailers was much lower than that of B-doubles, the average payload
carried by B-doubles was considerably higher.
As recorded, both vehicle classes carried various amounts of
freight; their distributions are shown in Fig. 2. The normalized fre-
quency of semi-trailers and B-doubles falling into each load group
was calculated. The distributions tended to be bimodals, represent-
ing the prevalence of either unloaded or almost fully loaded ve-
hicles. The reason for the existence of these empty trucks might
be that they were on the way back after completing their freight
transport tasks. However, these empty trucks still induced pave-
ment damage while having no contribution in freight transport.
Moreover, there was a considerable proportion of trucks only par-
tially utilizing their weight capacity. This may be due to the limi-
tation in the volume capacity of trucks or the lack of organization of
the freight assignment.
Formulation of the Problem
To transport a given amount of freight, there are five primary factors
that have a major influence on the accumulative ESA:
• Total weight of freight (freight task);
• Number of semi-trailers and B-doubles;
• Percentage of freight carried by semi-trailers and B-doubles;
• Vehicle number at each payload bin [probability density func-
tion (PDF) of payloads] for semi-trailers and B-doubles; and
• Payload-related ESAs for semi-trailers and B-doubles.
This study investigates the sensitivity of the total ESA to the
change of each of the previous factors, and therefore how to opti-
mize the payload distributions for semi-trailers and B-doubles
under fixed freight task so as to minimize the total ESA. The fol-
lowing mathematical model is derived to describe the variables and
objective of the optimization function:
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Fig. 1. Configuration of six-axle semi-trailers and nine-axle B-doubles.

Table 2. Basic statistics of 1-month recorded data X

n
ðpj V b Þxj ¼ p0 W ∀ p0 ∈ ½0; 1 ð6Þ
Parameter Semi-trailers B-doubles Sum
j¼1
GVM legal limit (t) 45.5 68.0 —
Tare mass (t) 15.7 21.4 —
Maximum freight mass (t) 29.8 46.6 — X
m

Vehicle number 11,212 4,175 15,387 ðpi V s Þxi ¼ ð1 − p0 ÞW ∀ p0 ∈ ½0; 1 ð7Þ

i¼1
Freight (t) 126,313 (54%) 107,366 (46%) 233,679
ESA 19,757 (58%) 14,291 (42%) 34,048
Average payload/truck (t) 11.3 25.7 15.2 where m (n) = total number of payload bins for semi-trailers
Average ESA/truck 1.8 3.4 2.2 (B-doubles); V s (V b ) = total vehicle number of semi-trailers
(B-doubles); pi (pj ) = probability of semi-trailers (B-doubles) fall-
ing into payload bin i (j); xi (xj ) = upper bound value at payload
• Objective function: bin i (j) for semi-trailers (B-doubles); Es (Eb ): = payload-related
ESA equation for semi-trailers (B-doubles); ls (lb ) = legal payload
X
m X
n limit for semi-trailers (B-doubles); W = fixed total amount of
Min ESA ¼ pi V s Es ðxi Þ þ pj V b Eb ðxj Þ ð3Þ freight required to be transported; and po = percentage of freight
i¼1 j¼1 carried by B-doubles.
The objective function [Eq. (3)] contains two parts: the first
Subject to: is the total ESA of semi-trailers and the other is the total ESA of
B-doubles; Eqs. (4) and (5) give the range of payload values; and
xi ∈ ½0; ls  ∀i ð4Þ
Eqs. (6) and (7) represent that the sum of the payload of each truck
equals to the total amount of freight task and limits the percentage
xj ∈ ½0; lb  ∀j ð5Þ of freight undertaken by B-doubles.

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Fig. 2. Normalized frequency of payload for two types of trucks (bimodal).

Fig. 3. Trend of ESA  1 standard deviation against the growth of payload for semi-trailers and B-doubles.

Therefore, various variables should be considered when mini-
mizing the total ESA. Among them, two are investigated in depth
in this paper: the payload-related ESA equations for the two types
of trucks; and individual vehicle number at each payload bin.
Payload-Related ESA Module
The average ESA values of vehicles carrying a variety of loads were
calculated based on WIM data. The vehicles were classified into
integer freight weight groups, and the average ESA was calculated
to diminish the scatter of the data. For example, the vehicles carry-
ing 4.5 to 5.5 t of freight were grouped as 5-t class and the average
ESA of the vehicles was calculated. The ESA values for other pay-
load levels were obtained similarly. The number of ESA per vehicle
against the weight of the freight carried is plotted in Fig. 3, and the
standard deviations of the individual ESAs were marked. The ESA
grew exponentially when the payload increased, and the equations
and their coefficients of determination (R2 ) are shown in Fig. 3.
At higher payload levels, B-doubles appeared to have significant
advantages in ESA compared with semi-trailers when undertaking
the same amount of freight. With the satisfactorily regressed ESA-
payload equations (high R2 values), the ESA of either type of trucks
could be estimated based on the freight weight it carries. Therefore,
the equations on Fig. 3 are used in the objective function [Eq. (3)]
for optimization.

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Fig. 4. Trend of the efficiency of semi-trailers and B-doubles carrying various payloads.
Vehicle Number Module
Eqs. (6) and (7) indicate that the vehicle number of each truck type
is a dependent variable related to the percentage of freight shared as
well as the load spectra of the trucks. To study the effect of vehicle
numbers at each payload bin on the total ESA, two different sce-
narios are considered and compared: (1) For the individual vehicle
configuration, the payload of each truck is set to be the same; and
(2) the payloads for semi-trailers and B-doubles are assumed to
follow the statistical distributions.
Optimization Scenario 1: Each Vehicle Carrying the
Same Payload (p i
1, p j
1)
First, the simplest scenario was considered, in which the payload
for all trucks was assumed to be constant; therefore, the number of
vehicles will change, to transport the required amount of freight.
Under this circumstance, the objective function [Eq. (3)] can be
rewritten as
Eðxi Þ Eðxj Þ
ESA ¼ ð1 − po ÞW þ p0 W ð8Þ
xi xj
Therefore, to minimize the total ESA when carrying a fixed
amount of freight, the ratios between ESA and payload are crucial
parameters. In this paper, payloads over ESAðxi =Eðxi Þ & xj =
Eðxj ÞÞ are used to represent the efficiency of the trucks transporting
the freight. The values of xi and xj represent the input (benefit)
(i.e., transporting the freight), whereas Eðxi Þ and Eðxj Þ represent
the output (cost) (i.e., induced pavement damage). The higher this
value is, the less ESA is caused while transporting the same weight
of freight. The vehicle efficiency against the various payloads car-
ried by semi-trailers and B-doubles is plotted in Fig. 4, which
illustrates that B-doubles were more efficient compared with semi-
trailers when the loads were no less than 7 t, and the advantage of
B-doubles rose with the increase of the weight of the freight, which
was consistent with the results found in Fig. 3. In contrast, the op-
timum payload values for semi-trailers and B-doubles were found
© ASCE 04019005-5
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to be 13 and 19 t, respectively, instead of the highest capacity.
Therefore, in terms of pavement protection, the most favorable
payload for the trucks was less than half of the legal freight weight
limit.
According to Eqs. (6) and (7), the changes in the percentage of
freight carried by semi-trailers and B-doubles also influenced the
total ESA. The sensitivity of the total ESA to the portion of the
freight undertaken by B-doubles is illustrated in Fig. 5. The ESA
values of the upper line were calculated based on the WIM-
recorded payload distribution (Fig. 2), whereas the bottom line
produced the ESA values estimated when all semi-trailers and
B-doubles undertook the optimum payload values (semi-trailers:
13 t; B-doubles: 19 t). In addition, the current ESA level given
in Table 2 was marked by a triangle. With the increase of the freight
undertaken by B-doubles, the advantages in the total ESA under
both conditions appeared to increase linearly, corresponding to
the trend illustrated in Eq. (8). The minimum ESA was obtained
when B-doubles undertook all of the freight, which was decreased
by 32.3% when applying optimal payload points in comparison
to the current ESA value. If the percentages of freight carried
by the two types of trucks followed the WIM recorded values
(i.e., B-doubles carried 46% of the freight task), the total ESA could
be reduced by 22.9%.
Sensitivity Analysis of the Variation of Payload for
Total ESA
Although there was a significant decrease in total ESA when ap-
plying the most efficient payloads for semi-trailers and B-doubles,
it is unrealistic that each semi-trailer and B-double carry the same
weight of payload on every trip. Thus, a three-dimensional figure
(Fig. 6) was produced to compare the changes in the total ESA with
various combinations of the payload for the two kinds of trucks. In
Fig. 6, the percentages of the total freight carried by semi-trailers
and B-doubles are same as the original WIM recorded values. In
addition, the total ESA value of each point in the pattern is calcu-
lated by applying the constant payloads for all semi-trailers and
B-doubles. The constant payload varied between 1 and the legal
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Fig. 5. Total ESA under the optimal payload points and WIM-recorded payload distributions against different proportions of freight carried by
B-doubles (freight amount: W ¼ 2.34 × 105 t).

Fig. 6. Total ESA plotted against various truck payload combinations when the total freight amount and B-doubles’ freight share equal the
WIM-recorded statistics (W ¼ 2.34 × 105 t, p0 ¼ 46%).

limit. The minimum total ESA among all of the payload combina- indicates that the total ESA is not very sensitive to the variations
tions is marked by a circle in the pattern, which corresponds to the of payloads in a specific range. In other words, it may still have
advantageous points given in Fig. 4. The surface of the ESA in the advantages in reducing the total ESA when the payloads for semi-
blue area was flatter and lower compared with other areas, which trailers and B-doubles have some variations.

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Fig. 7. Fitted statistical distributions for normalized frequency of payload for (a) semi-trailers; and (b) B-doubles.

Optimization Scenario 2: Vehicles Carrying Different where f1 and f2 = PDF of the theoretical distributions that are
Payloads (p i and p j Follows Statistical Distributions) added together with proper proportions (pe & 1 − pe ) to form the
final PDF for the whole bimodal. Commonly used distributions
Fitted Theoretical Distributions were applied to fit the measured payload distributions. The normal
In this scenario, statistical distributions were used to fit the WIM distribution was selected to model the second peak, whereas log-
recorded payload spectra for semi-trailers and B-doubles, to inves- normal distribution was chosen for the first peak to avoid the neg-
tigate the probability of the vehicles falling into each payload ative values. The PDF for normal and lognormal distributions are as
interval, which are shown in Figs. 7(a and b). The reason for follows:
applying the theoretical distributions instead of using polynomials • Normal distribution PDF:
to fit the curve is that the latter has little statistical meaning, even
though higher R2 values could be achieved. In addition, compared 1 2 2
f1 ðx; μl ; σl Þ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffi e−ðx−μl Þ =2σl ð10Þ
with discrete probability function, statistical distributions are more σl 2π
straightforward and computationally efficient than tables of values.
Because the payload distributions for both truck types tended to be • Lognormal distribution PDF:
bimodal, they were decomposed into the sum of two theoretical
distributions. This can be expressed as follows: 1 2 2
f 2 ðx; μe ; σe Þ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffi e−ðln x−μe Þ =2σe ð11Þ
f ¼ pe f 1 þ ð1 − pe Þf2 ð9Þ σe x 2π

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 The method to determine the best-fitted statistical model was to
substitute the PDF of the two distributions into Eq. (9). Therefore,
there were five unknowns (pe , μe , σe , μl , and σl ) existing in the
final model. The objective was to minimize the sum of the squares
of the error (or maximize the R2 ) between f and the recorded dis-
tribution. MATLAB Optimization Toolbox was used to solve these
unknowns by giving the objective function and the constraints
of the variables. The parameters for the final best-fitted theoretical
statistical distributions are found in the legends of Figs. 7(a and b).
The R2 values of the two statistical distributions for semi-trailers
and B-doubles were 0.92 and 0.80, respectively. In addition,
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and pe (pe0 ) = proportion of the relatively unloaded piece for
semi-trailers (B-doubles).
The results of the position of the second peak when the proportion
of relatively unloaded vehicles varied are shown in Figs. 8(a and b),
which also illustrate the changes in the shape of payload distribution
curves. As the percentage of unloaded vehicles decreased, other
trucks could carry less; thus, the payloads for more trucks becomes
closer to the optimum payload points, as shown in Fig. 4.
Fig. 9 presents the trend of the total ESA calculated based on
Eqs. (18) and (19) against the percentage of empty parts for semi-
trailers and B-doubles. The proportion of relatively empty vehicles

Figs. 7(a and b) were separated into two parts by a dash line. Rel-
atively unloaded trucks are considered at the left of the dash line,
and loaded trucks to the right.
Impact of Proportion of Relatively Unloaded Piece on
Pavement Damage
The relatively unloaded piece accounted for a considerable percent-
age for both semi-trailers and B-doubles, which also induced pave-
ment damage with little contribution to freight transportation. The
influence and sensitivity of the proportions of relatively unloaded
trucks on the ESA for the two types of trucks are investigated.
To study the unloaded part, other factors should remain constant,
such as the total vehicle number, the percentage share of freight
by each truck type, the deviations of the payload, and the first
peak position of payload distribution. To keep the total amount of
freight the same, the mean value of the normal distribution will vary
as the proportion of the relatively empty part changes. Calculation
of the mean value of the second normal distribution is given in
Eqs. (12) and (13) for semi-trailers and B-doubles, respectively.
Second Peak Position Calculation Equations
• Semi-trailers:
X
m
f s ðxi ; pe ; μe ; μl ; σe ; σl ÞdV s xi ¼ ð1 − p0 ÞW ð12Þ
i¼1
• B-doubles:
X
n
f b ðxj ; pe0 ; μe0 ; μl0 ; σe0 ; σl0 ÞdV b xj ¼ p0 W ð13Þ
j¼1
where μe ; σe ; σl ; μe0 ; σe0 ; σl0 = parameters of fitted statistical
distributions (listed in Fig. 7).
Subject to:
d ¼ 0.1 ð14Þ
W; po ; V s ; V b ¼ WIM recorded values ð15Þ
had a considerable impact on the total pavement damage. More-
over, the impact of the number of empty B-doubles was greater
than that of semi-trailers on pavement damage. Therefore, it would
be meaningful if the decision makers could lower the percentage of
empty trucks by resource integration and optimization.
ESA Calculation Equations
X
m
ESAs ¼ f s ðxi ; pe ; μe ; μl ; σe ; σl ÞdV s Es ðxi Þ ð18Þ
i¼1
X
n
ESAb ¼ f b ðxj ; pe0 ; μe0 ; μl0 ; σe0 ; σl0 ÞdV b Eb ðxj Þ ð19Þ
j¼1
Optimization Model: Case Study
After studying the impact of the unloaded part on the total ESA, a
mathematical model was developed to minimize the pavement
damage by optimizing the payload distributions for the two types
of trucks. The percentages of relatively empty parts for semi-trailers
and B-doubles were set to be 35% and 20% (half of the WIM re-
corded percentages) as a case study. Although these percentages
were arbitrarily chosen, they reflect reality, acknowledging that in
practice empty runs cannot be completely eliminated. In the math-
ematical modeling, only the right-side distributions (i.e., loaded
trucks) were optimized. Specifically, the mean values for relatively
loaded semi-trailers and B-doubles were the decision variables. In
addition, the average load of the left-side lognormal distributions
and the standard deviations for mixed distributions in the objective
function were same as the values in Figs. 7(a and b). The previous
objective function can be updated as follows:
• Objective function:
Xm
Min ESA ¼ fs ðxi ; pe ; μe ; μl ; σe ; σl ÞdV s Es ðxi Þ
i¼1
X
n
þ fb ðxj ; pe0 ; μe0 ; μl0 ; σe0 ; σl0 ÞdV b Eb ðxj Þ ð20Þ
j¼1

where
Subject to:
pe ∈ ½0; 0.1; 0.2; 0.3; 0.4; 0.5; 0.6 ð16Þ
xi ∈ ½0; ls  ∀i ð21Þ
pe0 ∈ ½0; 0.1; 0.2; 0.3; 0.4 ð17Þ xj ∈ ½0; lb  ∀j ð22Þ
Solve: X
n
fb ðxj ; pe0 ; μe0 ; μl0 ; σe0 ; σl0 ÞdV b xj ¼ p0 W ð23Þ
μl & μl0 j¼1

where d = length of the payload bin; fs (fb ) = PDF of the payload X

m
for semi-trailers (B-doubles); μe (μe0 ) = mean value of the rela- f s ðxi ; pe ; μe ; μl ; σe ; σl ÞdV s xi ¼ ð1 − p0 ÞW ð24Þ
tively unloaded piece for semi-trailers (B-doubles); σe (σe0 ) = i¼1
standard deviation of the relatively unloaded piece for semi-trailers
(B-doubles); μl (μl0 ) = mean value of the relatively loaded piece p0 ∈ ½0; 0.1; 0.2; 0.3; 0.4; 0.5; 0.6; 0.7; 0.8; 0.9; 1 ð25Þ
for semi-trailers (B-doubles); σl (σl0 ) = standard deviation
of the relatively loaded piece for semi-trailers (B-doubles); pe ¼ 0.35 ð26Þ

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Fig. 8. The second peak position of payload distribution for (a) semi-trailers; and (b) B-doubles.

pe0 ¼ 0.20 ð27Þ
where μe ; σe ; σl ; μe0 ; σe0 ; σl0 = parameters of fitted statistical distri-
butions (listed in Fig. 7).
Decision variables:
μl & μl0
After running the optimization model, it was found that the
value of the decision variables remained the same when changing
the proportions of freight carried by B-doubles. This is because dur-
ing optimization, the parameters of the most efficient load spectra
would remain the same (Fig. 10), which would not be influenced
by the percentages of freight undertaken by B-doubles. The
changes in the freight shares of the two sorts of trucks only had
an effect on their individual vehicle volumes (V s & V b ).
The optimization results of the mathematical model and the
minimum ESA values when changing the percentage of freight car-
ried by B-doubles are shown in Fig. 10. Similarly, the change in the
total ESA under the WIM-recorded payload distribution is plotted
as a comparison. The minimum ESA was also obtained when all of
the freight was carried by B-doubles, which decreased by 27.2%
when applying the optimal payload distribution compared with the
current ESA state marked in the pattern. In addition, when the
freight share by the two truck classes followed the WIM-recorded
values (semi-trailers: 54%; B-doubles: 46%), the total ESA can be
decreased by 15.8%. According to Fig. 10, there is a significant
advantage in reducing the pavement damage when the percentage
of empty trucks was decreased by 50%, so the total freight task
can be distributed around the optimum payload points. The opti-
mized distributions indicate how much pavement damage could be
avoided through a more judicious distribution of freight. The values

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Fig. 9. Total ESA plotted against the variations of the relatively unloaded piece for semi-trailers and B-doubles.

Fig. 10. Total ESA under the results of the optimal model and WIM-recorded payload distribution against different percentages of freight carried by
B-doubles (freight amount: W ¼ 2.34 × 105 t).

of ESA1 , ESA2 , and ESA3 marked in the pattern are the three traffic
loading scenarios selected for the following economic analysis.
Economic Analysis
Pavement Performance Model for Flexible Pavements
To calculate the economic savings in pavement treatments resulting
from the reduced ESA, a typical flexible pavement structure was
selected for predicting the pavement deterioration. This is be-
cause the studied WIM road section belongs to the flexible pave-
ment category. In addition, there are wider applications of flexible
pavements for constructing highways and freeways than rigid pave-
ments. A common structure of a flexible pavement normally con-
sists of multiple layers: surface course, base course, subbase course,
and subgrade. Each layer is constructed with different materials.
The subgrade is the natural formation of existing soils, whereas the
subbase course is a layer of material beneath the base course, which
is usually made up of treated subgrade. The base course consists
of a mixture of granular materials, such as sand, crushed stone, or
crushed slag. The top wearing course is commonly a layer of
asphalt.
Pavement performance prediction models should be considered
when determining the M&R schedules. For this study, a simplified

© ASCE 04019005-10 J. Transp. Eng., Part B: Pavements

J. Transp. Eng., Part B: Pavements, 2019, 145(2): 04019005

 pavement deterioration model proposed by Lee et al. (1993) was
applied as a base to predict the condition of the pavement over
its service life. Pavement initial condition, structure number, cumu-
lative traffic loading, pavement age, as well as weather conditions
are the factors contributing to pavement deterioration in the model.
The functional performance index, pavement serviceability rating
(PSR), is used to represent the pavement surface condition. The
numerical scale for PSR is between 0 and 5∶0 indicating that the
pavement condition is extremely poor, and 5 representing a perfect
pavement. The simplified pavement performance prediction model
is as follows:
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PSRt ¼ PSRi − AF × a × STRbt × Agect × CESAdt ð28Þ
where PSRt = pavement serviceability at year t; PSRi = initial
value of PSR after construction or major rehabilitation; a, b, c,
d = pavement performance coefficients that are dependent on the
type of the pavement; AF = adjustment factor that is relevant to the
climate conditions; STRt = structural number of the pavement at
year t; Aget = age of the pavement at year t after initial construction
or a major rehabilitation; and CESAt = cumulative 80-kN equiv-
alent single-axle loads applied to pavement in the heaviest traffic
lane in year t (unit: millions).
At different levels of pavement conditions, the corresponding
pavement treatment activities should be carried out to avoid the pre-
mature pavement failures and provide acceptable ride quality for
road users. There are different pavement repair activities that can
be categorized as routine maintenance, preventive maintenance, mi-
nor maintenance, and major rehabilitation. Generally, routine, pre-
ventive, and minor maintenance have only a small effect on the
improvement of pavement condition, whereas major rehabilitation
has noticeable effects (Rajagopal and George 1991; Abaza and
Abu-Eisheh 2003; Chootinan et al. 2006). For the long-term pave-
ment maintenance horizon, the selection of the types of treatments
as well as the activity timing is critical for maximizing the pave-
ment performance and minimizing the pavement repair costs. How-
ever, this study focuses on the economic benefits of the reduced
ESA resulting from the improved assignment of freight for heavy
vehicles. Therefore, only one type of treatment/major rehabilitation
was considered, to simplify the calculation and put emphasis on the
variable, CESAt . The major rehabilitation would be triggered when
the predicted pavement performance reaches the terminal service-
ability, which would restore the pavement to the initial condition.
Calculation of Cost Savings in Pavement M&R
Activities
According to Eq. (28), CESAt should be calculated to predict the
pavement performance, which is determined according to the base-
year ESA and the compound yearly ESA growth rate, as follows:
ð1 þ GRÞt − 1
CESAt ¼ ESAi × ð29Þ
GR
where ESAi : = initial annual ESA at base year for scenario i (unit:
millions); and GR = annual growth rate (unit: %).
Table 3 lists the specific values of the variables for the pavement
performance model. The initial PSR is 4.5, which is a common
value applied in practice (Lee et al. 1993; Chootinan et al. 2006;
Batouli and Mostafavi 2014). The calibrated parameters consisting
of AF, a, b, c, and d, which are dependent on different climate
zones and types of pavements, can be traced in Lee et al. (1993).
For this study, the pavement was defined as flexible and the climate
zone for Melbourne was selected as intermediate and no freeze. The
values of the pavement structure number as well as the annual
© ASCE 04019005-11
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Table 3. Variables for pavement performance prediction model
Variable Value
PSRi 4.5
AF 0.43
a 101.155
b −1.8720
c 0.3499
d 0.3385
STRt 5
GR 3%
ESAi scenarios
ESA1 34,048 × 12
ESA2 28,662 × 12
ESA3 24,776 × 12
Note: ESA1 ¼ WIM recorded distribution, B-doubles’ share: 46%; ESA2 =
optimization distribution, B-doubles’ share: 46%; and ESA3 = optimization
distribution, B-doubles’ share: 100%.
growth rate for truck traffic were presumed and considered to be
constant over the pavement service life. To investigate the potential
advantage of optimized ESA in pavement rehabilitation costs, two
ESA scenarios from the optimal payload distributions were se-
lected. One was obtained when 46% of the total freight task was
carried by B-doubles, whereas the other was from B-doubles trans-
porting all of the freight. The WIM-recorded ESA value was also
considered as a comparison. The source of the three ESA values can
be found in Fig. 10.
The analysis period and the terminal serviceability index were
set to be 50 years and 2.5, respectively. Major rehabilitation would
be triggered when the PSR was close to 2.5, to guarantee that the
pavement condition would always be above an acceptable level.
Based on the parameters given in Table 3, the pavement service-
ability can be predicted. Hence, the timing and frequency of pave-
ment treatments were determined. Fig. 11 depicts the PSR curves
resulting from different scenarios of ESA. After optimizing the
payload spectra, within a 50-year period, the number of major reha-
bilitation activities required decreased from three to two. Moreover,
if a larger percentage of freight was undertaken by B-doubles, it
would be more beneficial in pavement treatments, which was re-
flected by the remaining life of the pavement at the end of the
analysis period, also called the salvage value.
To quantify the pavement M&R activities, the difference in costs
for the three rehabilitation schedules shown in Fig. 11 was com-
pared using the present value (PV), which was determined through
discounting all future project costs to the base year, normally the
year of construction (Walls and Smith 1998). The equation for
calculating the pavement treatment costs as follows:
X
n
t
T
1 j 1
PV ¼ M −S ð30Þ
i¼1
1þr 1þr
where PV = present value of all M&R costs; M = cost of the indi-
vidual M&R activity (unit: $); r = discount rate; n = total number of
M&R activities over the analysis period; tj = number of years from
the present to the jth M&R activity; S = salvage value at the end
of the analysis period (i.e., the pavement remaining life); and T =
length of the analysis period (unit: years).
Therefore, according to Eq. (30), the PV costs for the three dif-
ferent scenarios can be obtained. As a case study, the discount rate
was assumed to be 5% and the results are found in Table 4. As
indicated, this would have a significant advantage in decreasing
pavement treatment costs through optimizing freight assignment.
When the optimal payload distribution was applied, 14.99% of
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Fig. 11. Comparison of pavement rehabilitation schedules resulting from different payload spectra and freight shares.
Table 4. Present value of the three pavement rehabilitation schedules
(r ¼ 5%)
ESA scenario PV
1 0.5618M
2 0.4776M (−14.99%)
3 0.4297M (−23.51%)
pavement repair costs could be saved if 46% of the total freight was
carried by B-doubles in comparison to costs based on WIM-
recorded ESA. Moreover, when B-doubles undertook the entire
amount of freight, the benefit in the cost savings was greater,
decreasing by 23.51%.
Conclusions
This paper focused on the freight transportation of two popular
types of trucks in Australia, semi-trailers and B-doubles, investigat-
ing their vehicle efficiency in terms of pavement performance
and how to distribute the freight task more properly to minimize
their induced pavement damage. In addition, the cost savings in
pavement-treatment activities by applying the optimized freight as-
signment were studied. WIM data, which can provide detailed
weight information about the trucks, were used to study their ef-
fects and current load spectra. The following is a summary of the
main results:
1. When carrying the same load, B-doubles have a greater advan-
tage in preventing pavement damage than semi-trailers at higher
load levels;
2. The best vehicle efficiency occurrs when the weights of
freight carried by semi-trailers and B-doubles are 13 and 19 t,
respectively, and the benefit of reducing the total ESA in-
creases with the growth of the percentage of freight carried by
B-doubles;
© ASCE 04019005-12
J. Transp. Eng., Part B: Pavements, 2019, 145(2): 04019005
3. To distribute the freight task more reasonably, the approach of
applying mathematical models to optimize the load spectra
was considered. Mixed distributions were used to fit the WIM-
recorded complicated payload spectra. When decreasing the
proportion of empty trucks on the road, the freight can be as-
signed more evenly (i.e., decreasing the mean payload value),
thus reducing the total pavement damage. To obtain the opti-
mum payload spectra, a case study was developed, which shows
significant advantages in decreasing pavement damage but al-
lowing more flexibility in freight assignment compared with
all vehicles carrying the same payload; and
4. A simplified pavement performance prediction model was ap-
plied to investigate the potential benefits of the optimized spec-
tra in cost savings in pavement M&R activities. Through the
case study, it was shown that the pavement treatment costs over
its analysis period will be reduced considerably by optimizing
the freight assignment.
The study gives the decision makers an indication of the poten-
tial use of WIM data resources and a prototype of how to assign the
freight task more efficiently in terms of pavement performance,
thus decreasing the pavement repair costs. Other factors can also
be included in the future to make the freight assignment more prac-
tical, such as vehicle operating costs, environmental costs, and
social costs.
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