PURPOSES: The purpose of this paper is showing that the state of pavement sublayers can be evaluated differently according to direction of FWD. METHODS: The concrete pavement slabs above subgrade without anything, subgrade with cavity, and box culvert were modeled by finite element method(FEM). The modeled pavements were analyzed by changing the direction of falling weight deflectometer(FWD). The deflection results obtained from FEM were used to calculate radius of relative stiffness and composite modulus of subgrade reaction using AREA method. Then, the analyzed results were compared to the results of the test performed at the Korea Expressway Corporation(KEC) test road. RESULTS : The composite modulus of subgrade reaction increased with subgrade elastic modulus, while radius of relative stiffness decreased. The pavement sections of pure earth showed the consistent results regardless of FWD direction. In case there was cavity, the radius of relative stiffness was larger and composite modulus of subgrade reaction was smaller when FWD was leaving the cavity than when approaching the cavity. This pattern became clear when the cavity got larger. In case of the section with box culvert, the pattern was opposite to the case of cavity. When the soil cover depth increased, the effect of box culvert got smaller. When the load was applied far from the cavity and box culvert, the effect was also declined. The test performed at the KEC test road showed identical results to those of finite element analysis. CONCLUSIONS : The direction of FWD should be considered in evaluation of the state of pavement sublayers because it can be evaluated differently even under identical condition.