The fatigue carousel
LAMES — Test Equipment
The Fatigue Carousel
The fatigue carousel is a traffic simulator designed to study the full-scale behaviour of pavements under accelerated heavy traffic.
With a diameter of 40 m, it can drive loads of over thirteen tonnes at up to 100 km/h at the end of its arms. Two months of rotation can represent up to 20 years of heavy-vehicle traffic on a medium-traffic pavement (T3: 150 HGVs/day), equivalent to 1 million load applications.
Tests can cover new pavement structures using innovative materials, maintenance and reinforcement techniques, as well as any road element or non-destructive testing method.
By its performance, it is one of the largest facilities of its kind in the world.
The site has three test rings, allowing the carousel to be relocated from one site to another within a week. Each ring has a mean perimeter of 120 m and can be subdivided into several test sectors, dedicated to one or more research topics.
Photo and video gallery
Resources
Carousel brochure
Presentation document for the fatigue carousel, covering its performance and fields of application.
History of the carousel
The history of the carousel was presented at the 35 years of the fatigue carousel event, held in 2013. Find on this page the programme, presentations and highlights of that occasion.
APT Conference — Nantes, 4–6 April 2022
Entrusted to LAMES, the 6th international quadrennial conference on accelerated pavement testing (APT) was held in Nantes from 4 to 6 April 2022. All information is available on the official conference website.
Presentation videos
The fatigue carousel — Tom Scott
Discover the fatigue carousel at Université Gustave Eiffel, as explained by Tom Scott in May 2022.
Watch the video (5 min)Track construction — Timelapse
In 2 minutes, discover how a test track is built on a carousel ring in this time-lapse video.
Watch the timelapse (2 min)A now fully electric carousel
Motor replacement — Autumn 2022
In 2022, the original motors were replaced with electric motors. The former hydraulic motors, in service since the carousel was built over 40 years ago, had low efficiency. Measurements now show an energy consumption reduction of 30 to 50% depending on speed, representing a considerable improvement.
In addition to high energy efficiency, quieter operation and a reduced environmental footprint are the most notable benefits.
Contact
Get in touch
For any enquiry about the fatigue carousel, a collaboration request or access to the facility, please contact LAMES at juliette.blanc@univ-eiffel.fr and mai-lan.nguyen@univ-eiffel.fr.