Airport Asphalt Research Articles

Effects and molecular mechanisms of jet ablation and fuel corrosion on separation failure of the asphalt-aggregate interface in airport asphalt pavements

To guide the improvement of asphalt pavement durability in airports, the effects and molecular mechanisms of jet ablation and fuel corrosion on separation failure of the asphalt-aggregate interface were investigated in this study using molecular dynamics simulations and density functional theory method. Firstly, tensile separation behaviors of the virgin, aged, and fuel-corroded asphalt-aggregate interfaces were simulated under different loading rates to evaluate their tensile strength and fatigue cracking resistance, and the experimental data were also used to verify the reliability of the simulation results. Subsequently, the molecular mechanisms of jet ablation and fuel corrosion on the separation failure of the asphalt-aggregate interface were analyzed by calculating the work of adhesion, work of cohesion, flowability parameters, and intermolecular binding energy. The results show that the aged specimen has higher ultimate tensile strength and fracture energy, but its flexibility and fatigue cracking resistance are significantly reduced. This is because the polar oxygen-containing groups generated during high-temperature aging enhance the intermolecular binding energy of the asphalt, but this also restricts the diffusion of asphalt molecules, resulting in greater frictional resistance and viscosity of asphalt during shear deformation, and thus loss of mobility and self-healing properties. On the contrary, since the light and medium oils soften and dilute the asphalt, and also weaken the intermolecular binding energy of asphalt, the fuel corrosion reduces the ultimate tensile strength and fracture energy of the asphalt-aggregate interface system, resulting in insufficient overall strength and load-bearing capacity.

Studies on the Influence of Temperature and Frequency on the Stiffness Module for Airport Asphalt Mixtures

Abstract The study of the behavior of bituminous mixtures is a very old subject in the specialized literature, many specialists in the field trying to explain the causes of the degradations, considering different factors. The bituminous mixtures were initially used in the construction of road structures for roads, so that a few years ago they also started to be used in the road structures of airport surfaces. The subject of the current research study is a priority worldwide and contributes, through the obtained results, to the enrichment of knowledge regarding the behavior of airport bituminous mixtures. The complexity of this study was based on the multitude of laboratory tests carried out on the designed airport bituminous mixture, BBA 16, using complex modern and high-performance equipment and equipment that lead to the determination of the stiffness modulus at different temperatures and frequencies both on trapezoidal samples and on prismatic samples.

Suitability evaluation method for preventive maintenance of asphalt pavement based on interval-entropy weight-TOPSIS

The preventive maintenance (PM) comprehensive evaluation model is developed to find the optimal airport asphalt pavement PM project quickly, accurately and efficiently. By optimizing the TOPSIS method and introducing information entropy to determine the weights, the interference of subjective factors is avoided. Combined with the interval-valued theory, the interval-entropy weight-TOPSIS model is established to be more consistent with the needs of network-level PM. The model is successfully used to demonstrate the effectiveness and practicability at several airports in China. The obtained results show the optimal PM recommendation can be obtained by the model due to the consideration of more objectivity and practicality.

Performance test and evaluation index recommendation of fog seal on airport asphalt pavement

Performance test and evaluation index recommendation of fog seal on airport asphalt pavement

Effect of deicing agents on the performance of airport asphalt pavement

Deicing agents are widely used to remove ice and snow on airport pavement, ensuring air traffic operation and safety. However, excessive spraying may affect the performance of airport pavement. The effects of different chloride deicing agents on the performance of airport asphalt and mixture have been assessed by previous studies. The three deicing agents (NaCl, KHF-1A, and NW056) were selected. Conducting various tests to examine their influence on the performance of asphalt and asphalt mixture. The tests include the DSR test, BBR test, indirect tensile test, bending test of small beam, and freeze-thaw splitting test. The results indicate that the asphalt anti-rutting factor G*/sinδ varies by 25%–45%, the asphalt creep stiffness increases by 15%–50%, and the anti-fatigue factor (G* sinδ) increases by 10%–40% under the effect of the deicing agents. The splitting strength of the mixture decreases by 10%–40%, the bending stiffness modulus increases by 6%–20%, and the freeze-thaw splitting strength ratio does not change significantly under the effect of the deicing agents. NW056 deicing agent has minimal effect on the performance of airport pavement and has optimal performance. The replacement of traditional chloride deicing agents helps to prolong the service life of airport asphalt pavement.

Airport pavement performance evaluation of pavement fog seal based on optimized test technology

Fog seal technology is widely used in airport asphalt pavement. The research on the performance and application of fog seal material is basically at the level of modified emulsified asphalt. The fog seal test method in the existing specification has defects. Three kinds of fog seal materials with different substrates were selected in this paper. Based on the characteristics of fog seal treatment and the relevant specifications of fog seal and airport pavement. Wet Track Abrasion Test (WTAT), Cantabro test, Water seepage test, and Pendulum instrument tester pavement friction coefficient test were improved. Test the pavement performance of different types of fog seals. The results show that the mass loss of material C was less than 10% after 200 and 400 cycles of wear. The improvement effect of material C on raveling resistance and impermeability was far better than that of materials A and B. The improvement of material C on the raveling resistance of the mixture could reach 50%. The immediate improvement effect on the impermeability was nearly 100%. The skid resistance performance of the three fog seal materials decreased after treatment. The decrease in material C was more significant than in materials A and B. In constructing material C, the dose of emery should be appropriately increased. It was advisable to not be less than 0.35 kg/m2. The fog seal layer improves pavement performance. It has reference significance for using fog seal technology to treat early airport pavement diseases.

Dynamic Response Analysis of Airport Pavement under Impact Loading

The safety of the airport runway, as an infrastructure, is of considerable concern. The existing research has problems of hysteresis and unreasonable load application. In this paper, ANSYS is used to construct a coupled tire–pavement model to study the dynamic characteristics of airport asphalt pavements under impact loading. Taking the Boeing 737–800 as an example, the impact of an aircraft landing on an airport pavement is simulated by applying a dynamic load to the landing gear. The effects of tire pressure, landing pitch angle, and sinking speed on the dynamic response of the airport runway are investigated. The effects of each factor of the airport pavement are analyzed by comparing the maximum effective stress, effective strain, and displacement in the vertical direction at the same position of different structures. The results show that when the tire pressure is 2.0 MPa, the maximum values of effective stress, effective strain, and vertical displacement increase by 29.8%, 19.1%, and 22.2%, respectively, compared with 1.0 MPa. The maximum values of effective stress, effective strain, and vertical displacement at the 3.0 m/s sinking speed increase by 25.2%, 93.1%, and 77.1%, respectively, compared with that at the sinking speed of 1 m/s, which indicates that the effect of sinking speed on the dynamic response of the pavement is more significant. However, the change in the landing pitch angle has little impact on the response parameters of the pavement. Meanwhile, the flexural tensile stress at the bottom of the surface and the equivalent effect at the top of the soil foundation must be considered in the design of the airport pavement structure.

Study on the evolution of airport asphalt pavement integrated distress based on association rule mining

In order to better investigate the relationship between airfield asphalt pavement distress, 500 units of asphalt runway data were obtained from a scientific pavement zoning method for five airports, based on an extensive collection and survey of asphalt pavement distress types and damage levels. An improved Apriori algorithm was used to explore the evolution mechanism between typical distress, to establish a pavement evolution model and to characterize the distress deterioration probability by defining the deterioration degree. The data mining results show that there are three stages of asphalt pavement distress evolution, and that each distress can evolve from the previous distress. The key to extending the service life of asphalt pavement lies in delaying and stopping the process of distress evolution and accurately judging the key points of distress evolution from the perspective of pavement maintenance plans for the whole life cycle of pavement, which provides a scientific basis for further management of a preventive maintenance evaluation index system for asphalt pavements.

Structural performance evaluation of airport asphalt pavement based on field data measurement and finite element simulation

Airport asphalt pavement failure is caused by the combined effects of temperature and aircraft loading. Sensors have been effectively used to monitor the structural health of airport asphalt pavements. However, deploying sensors in multiple locations results in limited and discontinuous information. In this sense, finite element (FE) models are established to analyze the pavement service conditions at arbitrary locations in the airport pavement. First, sensors are used to measure pavement response and temperature data to verify the feasibility of the finite element method (FEM). Secondly, temperature index and performance-based zones of pavement structural layers are proposed based on the FEM. The proposed FE models demonstrate the feasibility of obtaining structural response and temperature distribution for performance zoning of different structural layers. This method improves the accuracy of performance evaluation through field data measurements, and provides guidance for the optimal design of airport pavement structure.

Design parameter and method for airport asphalt mixture based on high-temperature performance

The objective of this study is to establish a design system oriented towards the rutting resistance of paving asphalt mixture. To achieve this goal, a series of experiments and analyses were conducted, including the selection of design parameter, the establishment of design method and the verification of design system. Test results indicated that in comparison with uniaxial penetration strength (UPS) and Marshall stability (MS), uniaxial compression strength (UCS) had a higher sensitivity to asphalt content and was thus suitable as a design parameter. Correlation analysis showed that linear correlation between UCS and dynamic stability was more significant with Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) exceeding 0.8 for various types of asphalt mix, exhibiting an accurate characterization to the anti-rutting ability of asphalt mix. Moreover, 2.94 MPa was proposed as the design critical value based on fitting equation. Compared to conventional design method, the asphalt mixture from proposed method possessed a better high-temperature performance, especially under severe in-service condition where flow number increased by 27.5% to 37.1% in repeated load permanent deformation (RLPD) test and impression depth decreased by 18.3% to 19.7% in Hamburg wheel tracking (HWT) test. This research provided a new idea for anti-rutting technology innovation of asphalt pavement in civil airport field from the aspect of paving materials design.

Determination of asphalt mixture’s viscoelastic constitutive parameters for pavement response analysis using dynamic modulus transformation

Asphalt mixture is a kind of typical viscoelastic material, whose viscoelastic property is much affected by test temperature and loading rate. This feature makes it difficult to accurately determine the mixture’s viscoelastic constitutive parameters, which is crucial for pavement mechanical analysis, and results in a large discrepancy between the calculated results and in situ measured data if parameters are not properly determined. Considering the background discussed above, this paper develops a theoretical method to determine asphalt mixture’s Burgers model parameters through transforming dynamic modulus, which bases the extreme value characteristics of asphalt mixture’s dynamic modulus and the theory of linear viscoelastic mechanics. Next, this paper conducts a series of laboratory experiments, analytical derivation and numerical modeling to verify this developed method’s efficiency and accuracy, and obtains a satisfying result. In the latter part of this paper, a viscoelastic numerical modeling for Cagliari Elmas airport asphalt pavement’s mechanical response is conducted, which just utilizes this developed method to determine a mixture’s viscoelastic constitutive parameters and a comparison of pavement response among modeling results, in situ measured data and Flexpave modeling results verify this method again.

Disease and Treatment of Airport Asphalt Concrete Pavement

Disease and Treatment of Airport Asphalt Concrete Pavement

SuPerPave® Mix Design Method of Recycled Asphalt Concrete Applied in the European Standards Context

The recycling of road and airport asphalt pavements requires greater reliability of mix design in order to ensure proper rehabilitation and effective reuse of recycled asphalt concrete. Currently, internationally, the most effective mix design procedures for recycled asphalt concrete with RAP (Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement) refer to guidelines developed by SuPerPave® Mixtures Expert Task Group. In this paper, according to the requirements of the European standard EN 13108, the authors investigated the reliability of the above mix design procedure. In particular, the SuPerPave® mix design guidelines were applied for dosing components of wearing course layer recycled asphalt mixture and for the determination of PG (Performance Grade) and critical temperatures of binder contained in RAP (RAP binder) and of binder added ex-novo (virgin binder). The experimental research program started from RAM (Reclaimed Aggregate Material) grading characterization and RAP binder content determination. Afterwards, rheological characterization of the RAP binder and selected virgin binder was carried out using the DSR (Dynamic Shear Rheometer) and BBR (Bending Beam Rheometer) devices. This step allowed us to identify the right virgin binder percentages to be added to RAP binder. Then, in compliance with European standards, the mix design study of recycled mixtures was carried out, identifying the necessary granulometric integrations and the virgin-binder-appropriate percentages to be added. In this phase, three different RAP percentages were used: 30%, 40%, and 50%. Finally, the experimental plan was completed with a preliminary mechanical characterization of the studied recycled asphalt mixtures. The results showed that the implemented rational mix design guarantees performance levels of wearing course layer recycled mixtures that are fully in compliance with European standards.

Research and Analysis of Civil Airport Asphalt Concrete Pavement Damage Cause Evaluation and Countermeasure

Asphalt concrete pavement is characterized by convenient construction and maintenance, ride comfort, low noise, and strong adaptation and coordination deformation. Therefore, it has been gradually used in civil aviation transport airport runway, especially in recent years, the proportion of runways used in large hub airports has increased. However, asphalt concrete pavement also has many issues that is not conducive to the security of airport operation and management under the influence of traffic load, natural environment, and material performance. This paper analyzes and studies the causes and countermeasures of the damages through the investigation of several cases of asphalt concrete pavement damages in China, so as to provide reference for the extensive application and maintenance management of asphalt concrete pavement in airports in the future.

Avaliação das relações entre propriedades de forma de agregados, compactação, parâmetros do esqueleto mineral e textura de revestimentos asfálticos aeroportuários a partir do Processamento Digital de Imagens (PDI)

Este trabalho busca contribuir, na fase de projeto, para a previsão de macro e microtextura de misturas asfálticas aeroportuárias, relacionando-as com propriedades de forma dos agregados, métodos de compactação e parâmetros do esqueleto mineral. Para tanto, foi validado o uso do Processamento Digital de Imagens (PDI), a partir do equipamento AIMS2, cujas avaliações de macro e microtextura apresentam correspondência satisfatória com o ensaio de Mancha de Areia (MA) e a textura superficial da matriz pétrea, respectivamente. Observou-se que o aumento do Grau de Compactação (GC) e a utilização de rolos tandem provocam uma redução na macrotextura e uma melhoria nas características do esqueleto mineral. Além disso, a compactação em laboratório pode dar suporte à previsão da macrotextura em campo, porém a microtextura pode ser melhor prevista a partir da análise isolada da textura superficial dos agregados, sendo necessário para isso o desenvolvimento de correspondências entre classificações estatísticas e físicas.

Calculation Clearance Between Aircraft

Airport aprons, aprons, ramps, or asphalt, are areas of an airport where aircraft are parked, unloaded or loaded, refueled, or ridden. Although the use of an apron is covered by regulations, such as lighting on a vehicle, it is usually more accessible to users than a runway or taxiway. The method used is to look at the rules or regulations in force in Indonesia, namely on Peraturan Direktur Jenderal Perhubungan Udara, No : SKEP/77/VI/2005 about Persyaratan Teknis Pengoperasian Fasilitas Teknik Bandar Udara. In this study, the extent of apron needs with the ability to accommodate 2 to 3 aircraft will be calculated. If the calculation results use aircraft specifications N219 (Nurtanio) and Stemme S-15, the Clearance between aircraft ready to takeoff is 556.5 m2.

Laboratory Evaluation of the Performance of Stone Mastic Asphalt as an Ungrooved Runway Surface.

Many airports are surfaced with grooved Marshall-designed dense graded asphalt. Grooving is required to satisfy regulatory aircraft skid resistance requirements, but introduces the risk of groove-related distress, such as groove closure. Consequently, airports seek an ungrooved runway surface option that performs similarly to dense graded asphalt but allows grooving to be avoided. Stone mastic asphalt is the most viable ungrooved runway surface solution and has been used on runways in Europe and China. However, before being accepted as an ungrooved runway surface in Australia, stone mastic asphalt must be shown to meet regulatory runway aircraft skid resistance requirements, and to otherwise perform similarly to typical dense graded asphalt mixtures for runway surfacing, including deformation resistance, fatigue cracking resistance and durability. Based on laboratory performance-related testing, 10-mm and 14-mm sized stone mastic asphalt mixtures, produced with four different aggregate sources, were found to generally meet the airport asphalt performance requirements. The 14 mm mixture was found to perform better than the 10 mm mixture, particularly regarding surface macrotexture and deformation resistance. It was concluded that airports should consider 14 mm sized stone mastic asphalt as an ungrooved runway surface in the future.

Application of digital construction whole process monitoring and management technology for airport asphalt pavement

The construction and management of airport asphalt pavement project has the characteristics of large construction scale, high technology, many professionals involved, and high quality requirements. The traditional monitoring and management method that relies on manual on-site inspections and records is vulnerable to many factors such as environmental conditions and the ability of the implementer. It is difficult to ensure real-time monitoring of construction quality and data backtracking. With the rapid development of various advanced technologies such as global navigation satellite system(GNSS), geographic information system(GIS) and internet of things(IoT), digital construction monitoring and management technology for airport asphalt pavement has emerged as the times require. Digital construction technology is implemented through professional testing equipment, data collection, data integration, and system installation. It covers the entire construction process of airport asphalt pavement from the background management of the mixing plant, the transportation management of vehicles to the field management of paving and compaction. The technology monitors the construction quality, guarantees the construction progress, improves management efficiency, and saves costs, which has great social and economic benefits.

Validation of an indirect data collection method to assess airport pavement condition

In this study the authors compare two methods for airport asphalt pavement distress data collection applied on the main runway of Amílcar Cabral international airport, located at Sal Island in Cape Verde. The two methods used for testing were traditional visual inspection (on-foot) and an indirect method using a vehicle equipped with image capture and recording, lasers and geolocation devices (in-vehicle inspection). The aim of this research is to contribute to the validation of the proposed low-cost in-vehicle pavement distress inspection system with semiautomatic data processing in order to be considered in the implementation of the pavement condition assessment component of airport pavement management systems (APMS). This is a particularly important component as from the collected distress data it is possible to assess the condition of the pavements and define intervention strategies. Validation of the indirect data collection method is evaluated by statistical comparison of the collected distress data and pavement condition index (PCI) obtained from both methods. Statistically non-significant differences between the result sets validate the proposed indirect method, however the analysis evidenced two aspects that need improvement in the proposed system, namely the quality of the captured images to identify distresses with lower severity level and inspector training for proper allocation of severity levels during image analysis. This results in significant advantages considering that the total amount of the runway pavement area is inspected. Inspection time is reduced and data collection cost can be reduced. Processing and results visualization on GIS environment allows revaluation of the dataset on the in-vehicle method. Data interpretation and measurements quality control becomes simpler and faster.

On the Use of Lateral Wave for the Interlayer Debonding Detecting in an Asphalt Airport Pavement Using a Multistatic GPR System

In this article, we focus on the detection of the interlayer debonding of the asphalt airport pavement by the ground-penetrating radar (GPR) system. Since the interlayer debonding usually occurs in the shallow region of the asphalt airport pavement (several centimeters), it is difficult to interpret the anomalies or the defects from the GPR signals composed of many waves under the boundary conditions. Moreover, the wavelength of the ordinary GPR system is over several centimeters. Therefore, the spatial resolution of the system is not accurate enough to consider the millimeter thickness of the debonding layer. To overcome these problems, we propose a new method based on evaluating the lateral wave behavior of common midpoint (CMP) gathers collected by a multiple static GPR system. The multistatic GPR system is a stepped frequency continuous wave (SFCW) radar system, which consists of eight transmitting and eight receiving bowtie antennas. The system operates in the frequency range from 50 MHz to 1.5 GHz. After the validation of the simulation, the results of the interlayer debonding detection were evaluated by a field experiment obtained at Tokyo International Airport. The proposed method can detect the debonding layers which are less than 1 mm. Also, it is shown that our proposed method has a high consistency with the conventional acoustic finding method in the field measurement. It provides an innovative and effective method for the interlayer debonding detection of a partially damaged airport asphalt pavement, which is difficult to be observed by the ordinary GPR signals.