Applications of the PCI Data Collected from U.S. Airports Nationwide

Abstract

Selection of slab size plays an important role in the construction of airport concrete pavements with an expected high performance at a low cost. Many countries including the United States have expressed differing opinions for decades about what constitutes the correct slab size. Many airport engineers and owners favor the larger slabs (7.62 by 7.62 meters) because of the low cost in construction and maintenance during their service life. Others prefer smaller slabs (5 by 5 meters) because of the better performance and longer life based on survey data. Although the current Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) advisory circular AC150-5320/6E does not recommend a slab size larger than 6.1 by 6.1 meters, some experienced field engineers still design and build concrete runways utilizing 7.62- by 7.62 -meter slabs. The detailed survey data analyses presented in this paper find the pavement condition is very sensitive to slab size for aprons but not for runways. Therefore, the use of small slabs is more important in aprons than in runways. A simple analysis-based probability theory can also provide information for different levels of administration to determine their budget in pavement management for a given threshold value of pavement condition index (PCI) or to determine the threshold value of PCI based on the available budget.