Instrumented flexible pavement responses under aircraft loading

Abstract

ABSTRACT The FAA National Airport Pavement Test Facility (NAPTF) is a full-scale accelerated pavement testing facility located in Atlantic City International Airport, New Jersey. Six flexible and three rigid test sections were built, instrumented and trafficked by Boeing 777 and 747 gears as part of construction cycle one. One flexible test section with an asphalt-stabilised base over a low-strength subgrade was considered in this study. All dynamic sensors, including pressure cells, strain gauges and multi-depth deflectometers were evaluated. A multistep procedure for evaluating the dynamic sensors was developed, and it included data reliability, repeatability, changes in the pavement responses under the Boeing 777 and 747 gears, and comparison with a three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) mechanistic model. The mechanistic model was found to predict the pavement responses with good reliability, whenever representative layer moduli are used. The study also found that 60% of the sensors produced acceptable or marginal responses and 40% produced unacceptable responses; therefore, it is recommended to consider this sensor survival rate when instrumenting future test sections. The rutting performance and pavement responses over time were evaluated; the test section was shown to have relatively similar performance and pavement responses under the Boeing 777 and 747 gears.