University of California Pavement Research Center

This document constitutes the user manual for tBeam, standalone software for the analysis of energy dissipation in pavements under moving vehicles. tBeam was developed as part of the improvement of modeling capabilities for environmental life cycle assessment of pavements being conducted by the University of California Pavement Research Center for the California Department of Transportation. tBeam is finite element based, employing multi-layered three-node Timoshenko beam elements resting on a viscoelastic Winkler foundation. It provides an approximation of the deflection bowl of pavements and the energy dissipated in pavement structures when subjected to loads moving at constant velocities. tBeam supports two loading options: a uniform pressure (per unit length) applied to a segment at the center of the beam, and a rolling rigid wheel. To achieve numerical efficiency the load-beam-foundation system is represented relative to a moving coordinate system attached to the moving load. The higher efficiency is made possible because, in this framework, an observer attached to the moving coordinate system perceives a “static” state (i.e., independent of time). The standalone tBeam software serves two purposes. First, to provide developers of pavement LCA tools a “guide” as to how to integrate tBeam technology into their program. To this end, the “main” of tBeam can be used as “guide” for integrating tBeam capabilities within the LCA tool. Second, tBeam capabilities are relevant to pavement research in general. Thus, it could represent a useful addition to the toolset for pavement viscoelastic mechanics.