Airport concrete pavement design by environmental and double dual tandem gear loadings

Abstract

A method for designing an airport concrete pavement (ACP) that can withstand environmental loads as well as traffic loads is presented. Information on ACPs for which double dual tandem landing gears were used for design aircrafts was collected and the stresses induced on the slabs when environmental loads and traffic loads were simultaneously applied were predicted with the finite-element analysis program FeaFaa. In addition, a maximum tensile stress regression model of ACP slabs was developed using the statistical analysis program SPSS. When environmental and traffic loads were simultaneously applied, the maximum tensile stress obtained with the finite-element method was significantly different from that obtained using Westergaard's equation of edge loading only in traffic loads. Therefore, the fatigue model in the US Federal Aviation Administration's AC 150/5320-6E design method was corrected to be appropriate for this study. Using the stress regression model developed in this study and the corrected fatigue model, the thickness and joint spacing of existing ACP slabs were redesigned and compared with existing airport pavements. Previously, only the thickness of a slab was designed and the joint spacing was empirically determined. However, from the results of this study, a slab's thickness and joint spacing can be designed mechanistically.