3 ms·
> For W1 of 4 tons on an axle and W2 of 1 ton on an axle, vehicle 1 does 256 times as much damage to pavement as vehicle 2. OK so take a loaded semi-truck at 4
by TacticalCoder 3y ago
> For W1 of 4 tons on an axle and W2 of 1 ton on an axle, vehicle 1 does 256 times as much damage to pavement as vehicle 2.
OK so take a loaded semi-truck at 40 tons / 80 000 pounds. How much more damage does it do than the 4 tons W1 of your example?
How's the road still even there at all after the semi-truck passed on it?
The answer is: because even the W1 vehicle at 4 tons cannot even dent that road.
Now I'm not saying a 4 tons car is a good thing but honestly 1 ton to 2.5 tons, I don't think it's even possible to measure the tiny damage they do.
- judge2020 3y agoIndeed. So while a 4.5 ton vehicle, the Hummer EV, does 25 times as much damage as a 2 ton sedan, a semi truck with 5 tons on each axle does ~625 times as much damage to the road. But 5 tons is not the standard. The federal axel limit is 20,000 pounds, so a fully loaded truck could be doing the same amount of damage to the road as 10,000 sedans. I doubt this is the average axle weight of all semis on the road, though.
- Timshel 3y agoYou do realize that not all roads are designed to allow for frequent 40t trucks usage (and they should not). So they might not dent a highway but probably not the same for city streets / suburbs and parkings.