Development of a Pavement Evaluation Method for Low-Volume Airfield Pavements

Abstract

The U.S. Air Force has a need to predict the number of aircraft operations to failure on marginal flexible pavements. Alternate Launch and Recovery Surfaces (ALRS) are being constructed for use only when the mission-essential runways are destroyed during an attack. Since ALRS pavements will only be used in contingency situations, an evaluation procedure is required to ensure that the pavements will support a limited number of operations.

The purpose of this study was to develop a falling weight deflectometer (FWD) based evaluation procedure to predict the allowable F-4 aircraft load and the allowable aircraft passes for marginal flexible pavements. Data from eleven pavement test sections that were trafficked to failure with an F-4 load cart were used to develop the evaluation methodology. Four of the test sections were constructed for the purpose of evaluating thin asphalt concrete (AC) surfaces. Seven test sections were environmentally aged pavements from 9 to 30 years old located in non-traffic areas of airfields.

The FWD Impulse Stiffness Modulus (ISM) was selected as the best estimator for predicting the pavement performance for low-volume airfield pavements. A method for correcting the ISM for temperature of the AC layer was developed. For evaluation, when California Bearing Ratio (CBR) is measured on all pavement layers, the Corps of Engineers CBR procedure is the next best estimator of performance of low-volume pavements.