Mechanical Response Analysis of Airport Flexible Pavement Above Underground Infrastructure Under Moving Wheel Load

Abstract

In order to carry out mechanical response analysis of airport flexible pavement above underground infrastructure under moving wheel load, a refined numerical analysis model base on ABAQUS software was developed in this paper. The influence of cross section form and pipeline design parameters were analyzed and discussed. Research results indicated that underground pipeline may alter the foundation supporting condition and significantly increased the stress level of overlying flexible pavement. Aircraft wheel load acting on the position aligned with the lateral edge of pipeline section was considered to be the most critical load condition. The peak value of vertical and shear stress at the flexible pavement bottom with round section pipeline buried beneath were much larger than that of rectangular section condition. The two important parameters, the minimum burial depth and maximum diameter of round section pipeline, should be strictly limited, which was in good consistent with the regulations for rigid pavement structures. When burial depth equals to 1.0 m, the varying tendency and peak value of shear stress curves were significantly enhanced and enlarged with the increase of section dimension. Shear failure of overlying pavement structure need to be concerned by researchers and engineers. As the burial depth increase to 1.5 m, the influence of underground pipelines was remarkably weakened.