Fast prediction of the mechanical response for layered pavement under instantaneous large impact based on random forest regression

The layered pavements usually exhibit complicated mechanical properties with the effect of complex material properties under external environment. In some cases, such as launching missiles or rockets, layered pavements are required to bear large impulse load. However, traditional methods cannot non-destructively and quickly detect the internal structural of pavements. Thus, accurate and fast prediction of the mechanical properties of layered pavements is of great importance and necessity. In recent years, machine learning has shown great superiority in solving nonlinear problems. In this work, we present a method of predicting the maximum deflection and damage factor of layered pavements under instantaneous large impact based on random forest regression with the deflection basin parameters obtained from falling weight deflection testing. The regression coefficient R ² of testing datasets are above 0.94 in the process of predicting the elastic moduli of structural layers and mechanical responses, which indicates that the prediction results have great consistency with finite element simulation results. This paper provides a novel method for fast and accurate prediction of pavement mechanical responses under instantaneous large impact load using partial structural parameters of pavements, and has application potential in non-destructive evaluation of pavement structure.