Airport Pavement Research Articles

UTILIZAÇÃO DE PAVIMENTOS RÍGIDOS EM PISTAS DE POUSO E DECOLAGEM

This article shows a comparison between flexible pavement and rigid pavement for use in runways. The authors compared them by designing a landing and takeoff runway for the Guarulhos airport, in rigid and flexible pavement, using the FAARFIELD software. A life and performance analysis for each lane was sized using FAARFIELD and establishing a performance model. The results developed a maintenance strategy and a management system for each type of pavement. Finally, a comparative cost analysis was made for each alternative. It was possible to demonstrate greater durability in the case of rigid pavement, less need for intervention.

Airport pavement evaluation systems for maintenance strategies development: a systematic literature review

Due to the high growth in air transport, combined with the urgency to increase capacity and suitability of the airport infrastructure, the need to adopt more efficient measures in the system arises of pavement management. Aiming to assist researchers in future studies within the theme related to management and initiatives of maintenance on airport pavements, a review of the existing literature was sought regarding the assessment systems and models for pavement conditions. These methodologies are responsible for steering the decision making regarding the actions of treatment and structures rehabilitation. From this, the purpose of this Systematic Review of the literature is to enable the identification of research and relevant contributions, and above all, to serve as a support and database for a greater understanding of the methodologies used in the assessment of airport pavement conditions. Publications were identified on the basis of a structured search strategy, with the selection of 283 papers on the Scopus and Web of Science databases, and after reading the title and abstract, 41 papers were read in full, leading to the implementation of a bibliometric analysis and a qualitative synthesis. It should be noted that among the most important findings and arguments in this article is the use of 15 different methods for prediction of pavement conditions, most of which fall into the category of empirical-mechanistic models. Finally, important considerations are made regarding the limitations and development of future research for decision making in the strategic context of airports pavements maintenance.

ANALYSIS OF CONCRETE AND ASPHALT AIRPORT MOVEMENT AREAS FOR THE NEEDS OF REGIONAL AIRPORTS OF THE VISEGRAD FOUR COUNTRIES

Aviation is currently the fastest growing sector of transport not only passengers but also goods. It is considered to be the most efficient, but also the safest, which is why great emphasis is placed on the efficiency and safety of air transport. A particularly important factor in air safety is the condition of operating areas at airports. Operating areas must meet the standards for the category of aircraft that will use them, while being properly maintained to maintain their safety. From a long-term perspective, the service life and costs associated with the operation of airport operating areas are also important. The aim of the article is to analyze the concrete and asphalt airport pavement surfaces of the regional airports of the Visegrad Four countries.

Advances in the Deformation and Failure of Concrete Pavement under Coupling Action of Moisture, Temperature, and Wheel Load.

The deformation and cracking of concrete will lead to various deterioration processes, which will greatly reduce the durability and service life of the concrete pavement. The relating previous studies and analysis revealed that the coupling action of environmental temperature, moisture, and wheel load will cause cracking and seriously affect the normal service and durability of pavement concrete. This paper presents theoretical and numerical state-of-the-art information in the field of deformation and failure of pavement concrete under coupling action of moisture, temperature, and wheel load and draws some conclusions. (a) Concrete is a typical porous material, moisture and heat transfer theory has obtained enough data to simulate the hygro-thermo properties of concrete, and the relationship between moisture and heat is very clear. (b) There are few studies on concrete pavement or airport pavement considering the coupling action of moisture, temperature, and wheel load. (c) Concrete pavement is subjected to hygro-thermal-mechanical coupling action in service, which has the characteristics of a similar period and its possible fatigue effect. (d) COMSOL software has certain advantages for solving the coupled hygro-thermal-mechanical of concrete.

Determining the allowable opening-to-traffic asphalt temperature for airport pavements

ABSTRACT Newly laid asphalt must be adequately cool before it can be trafficked to prevent the development of costly premature damage. Selecting an appropriate traffic-opening temperature of newly laid asphalt airport runway overlay would avoid early damage – while also minimising the disruption to the airport service due to prolonged runway closure in a busy airport. This study aims to investigate the allowable traffic-opening temperature of freshly paved asphalt during nighttime construction through a series of laboratory tests with regard to asphalt rutting and interface shear failure potential. Additionally, a transient heat transfer model is developed to study the cooling response of freshly laid asphalt and, along with stress analysis, used to deduce the effect of selected critical traffic opening to traffic on airport closure. The results suggest that mixtures with polymer-modified bitumen (PMB) can be re-opened to air traffic at a considerably higher temperature (up to 80°C) than conventional traffic-opening temperature as set by many agencies (60°C). This result encourages airport authorities and agencies to be more adaptive with the traffic-opening temperature specification, particularly for asphalt with PMBs. For the cases studied, raising the critical trafficking temperature would reduce the runway/airport closure during nighttime construction by 17–114 minutes (26–63% reductions).

An overview of the airport pavement management systems (APMS)

Airport Pavement Management System (APMS) is a useful tool, including a set of procedures for collecting, analyzing, maintaining, and reporting pavement data, thus assisting airports in finding optimum cost-effective treatments to preserve their pavement assets. The paper provides an in-depth overview of the APMS from an extensive literature review with the aim to identify numerous issues within APMS, such as the components, Pavement Condition Indices, software utilization, and the comprehensive implementation process. The methodology adopted for this research is a descriptive-based study approach on the various airport pavement manuals, guidelines and advisory circulars, journal articles, and book publications for the APMS applications. The airport pavement management systems and the case studies in various airports internationally will be included in the review. The study includes various subjects such as major components, benefit and cost approach, management in different levels, software utilization, maintenance, and rehabilitation (M&R) policies in the implementation of the APMS. Additionally, the research examines the pavement performance indicators that are the key elements for evaluating pavement conditions. Besides, the APMS software programs can store historical information, analyze data, develop models, and generate reports for M&R in association with the budget, including estimating future pavement life. The study summarizes the condition data required for the implementation and operation of an APMS, as well as the information generated by the APMS. The review highlights the benefits of an APMS in providing the airport operators and engineers far more informed position for decision-making to forecast future pavement maintenance requirements for an adequate and timely M&R.

Static and Dynamic Compressive Stress-Strain Behavior of Recycled Tire Crumb Rubber Mortar

Crumb rubber mortar (CRM) made from scrap tires can be used in highway, high-speed railways, and airport pavements as a structural material, which may help solving the problems of raw material shortage and waste tire pollution at the same time. To develop it, a systematic study of the stress-strain behavior of CRM under static and dynamic compression is therefore very important. In this paper, the CRM specimens containing four different contents of crumb rubber (5%, 10%, 15%, 20%) and four different rubber particle sizes (30 mesh and 50 mesh, 60 mesh, 80 mesh) were prepared to study the workability of fresh CRM and the stress-strain curve of hardened CRM under static compression and dynamic compression. The result shows that the fluidity of CRM decreases obviously with the addition of crumb rubber and the increase of fine particle rubber size. The CRM, when the incorporating crumb rubber increased in the mortar, presented a decrease in its static compressive strength and modulus of elasticity, but an increase in its critical strain and compressive toughness. The CRM also showed an obvious strain rate effect. When the incorporated rubber contents remained constant, the CRM increased its dynamic compressive strength and DIF with the increase of strain rates. Similar to that in the static compressive test, the addition of crumb rubber has a positive effect in enhancing the deformation and energy absorption properties under dynamic impact loading.

Calibrating a Local Civil Airport Runway Residual Life Prediction Model Using Random Effects and Joint Estimation

Existing runway residual life prediction models need to be modified using the historical data of evaluated airports during evaluation and management for civil airports in China. If the data measured in the field and the historical data used for model calibration do not represent the actual historical performance of the evaluated airport, the predicted performance of the revised model might be poor. This study used measured pavement performance data for local civil airports in Henan Province from 2007 to 2017. The joint-estimation method was used to establish a functional residual life prediction model for local civil airport pavement with another dataset. A functional residual life prediction model for airport pavement was proposed in consideration of the influence of aircraft traffic and the thickness of the pavement surface layer. Taking into account the differences between samples in the two datasets, nonlinear regression with random-effect analysis and joint estimation were used to explain unobserved heterogeneity at the sample level and heteroscedasticity in the dataset. Based on the results of the established residual life prediction model, the marginal effect of the model parameters and the prediction performance of the entire model were analyzed with the measured data from the local airport pavement. Finally, the engineering applicability of the calibrated prediction model for pavement residual life was further evaluated.

Effects of acidic water on hydro-mechanical properties of asphalt concrete

Asphalt concrete is widely used in road and airport pavements and more recently also in the construction of impervious facings and central cores in dams and dykes. Asphalt concrete may be subjected to strongly acidic water when used in connection with storage of mine tailings (tailings dams). Acidic water reacts with bitumen and mineral materials and may cause deterioration of the behavior of asphalt concrete with time. The present study investigated effects of acidic water with time on aggregate-bitumen adhesion, bitumen penetration value, softening point and ductility, mass change of asphalt materials, and change in tensile strength for porous and impervious asphalt concrete. The test results show that impervious, hydraulic asphalt concrete is very resistant to acidic water and show insignificant deterioration of properties during the 3-year testing period used in the experiments.

Opportunities in airport pavement management: Integration of BIM, the IoT and DLT

This paper aims to explore how digitalization technologies can help to better control and supervise road pavement and refurbishments at airports. In particular, Building Information Modeling, but also the Internet of Things and Distributed Ledger Technologies, have been considered. Particular attention has been devoted to the efficiency and effectiveness of management actions involving the control and supervision of maintenance and rehabilitation of runway pavement. To conduct the analysis, a use case, related to the Madrid Barajas 18R-36L runway, has been considered. Based on this case, various improvements have been detected and an operational framework has been proposed, which allows a higher level of functionality. Finally, a discussion about the capabilities and challenges for the airport industry is undertaken.

RECONSTRUCTING AIRPORT PAVEMENTS USING THE TECHNOLOGY OF PREFABRICATED CONCRETE SLAB

This article presents the construction and technical concept for the use of an innovative repair of the airport pavement. It consists in embedding a prefabricated concrete slab in place of the excessively degraded surface of the existing slabs. In addition, the introduced technology of connecting adjacent panels together increases the spatial stiffness of the entire functional element and significantly increases the load-bearing capacity of the pavement. The results of laboratory and field tests presented in the article confirm the effectiveness of the technology used. As a result, the application of the reconstructing technology ensures the safety performance of aircraft operations at airports facilities.

Prioritization of pavement restoration and maintenance strategies in airports using APMS technique

The airport networks need large amounts of public funds. In addition, the airport network is supported by one of the main economic activities in modern industrial societies: transfer and movement of goods and passengers. Today, the airports need pavement network management and maintenance alone is no longer of any use. The purpose of this study is to provide a method to prioritize restoration and maintenance strategies in the rigid concrete pavement through implementing the Airport Pavement Management System (APMS) technique. In this paper, the Micro PAVER, which is the most comprehensive software in pavement management, is utilized. Furthermore, the prospects of pavement management on the runway pavement of Imam Khomeini airport were investigated by assessing the status of the airport’s rigid concrete pavement and applying different scenarios and procedures of restoration and maintenance. Ultimately, prioritization strategies of restoration and maintenance on the airport’s rigid concrete pavement are proposed.

Humidity Comparative Study of New Maintenance Method in Airport Pavement Concrete of China

Through comparing actual projects this paper presents and discusses the effects of curing film and geotextile on humidity of airport pavement concrete during maintaining process. The results show that, compared with the maintenance of geotextile, the curing film can ensure sufficient humidity, and it has very significant uniformity and continuity.

Performance Study Research of New Maintenance Method in Airport Pavement Concrete of China

Through comparing actual projects this paper presents and discusses the effects of curing film and geotextile on the mechanical properties, durability and pore structure of concrete. The results show that, compared with the maintenance of geotextile, the curing film can enhance the strength of concrete to a certain extent, improve frost resistance and optimize pore structure of concrete.

Temperature Comparison Research of New Maintenance Method in Airport Pavement Concrete of China

Through comparing actual projects this paper presents and discusses the effects of curing film and geotextile on temperature of airport pavement concrete during maintaining process. The results show that, compared with the maintenance of geotextile, the curing film can ensure sufficient temperature, and it has very significant uniformity and continuity.

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.

Mechanistic Modeling and Economic Analysis of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Potential in Airport Pavements

This study investigated the feasibility of applying piezoelectric energy harvesting technology in airfield pavements through mechanistic modeling and economic analysis. The energy harvesting performance of piezoelectric transducers was evaluated based on mechanical energy induced by multi-wheel aircraft loading on flexible airfield pavements. A three-dimensional finite element model was used to estimate the stress pulse and magnitude under moving aircraft tire loading. A stack piezoelectric transducer design was used to estimate the power output of a piezoelectric harvester embedded at different locations and depths in the pavement. The aircraft load and speed were found to be vital factors affecting the power output, along with the installation depth and horizontal locations of the energy harvester. On the other hand, the installation of the energy module had a negligible influence on the horizontal tensile strains at the bottom of the asphalt layer and compressive strains on the top of the subgrade. However, the near-surface pavement strains increased when the edge ribs of the tire were loaded on the energy module. Feasibility analysis results showed that the calculated levelized cost of electricity was high in general, although it varies depending on the airport traffic levels and the service life of the energy module. With the development of piezoelectric materials and technology, further evaluation of energy harvesting applications at airports needs to be conducted.

Study on the Thermodynamic Properties of Concrete Surface during Microwave Deicing of Airport Pavement.

In the cold belt area, the icing phenomenon often appears on the airport pavement, which affects the safety of aircraft take-off and landing. Microwave deicing technology can effectively solve this practical problem and has many advantages. Taking microwave deicing technology as the research object and the surface temperature of pavement concrete as the index, an open microwave test system has been established in this paper. Based on this system, the temperature distribution, variation rule, and influencing factors of concrete have been studied systematically. The results show that the surface temperature of concrete increases linearly due to microwave action. In addition, during the microwave action, the temperature increase of the concrete surface is centered on the center point and shows a stepwise decreasing trend along the radius. At the same time, the increase of microwave source height leads to the increase of surface temperature distribution uniformity. The surface ice affects the rate of temperature increase of concrete in stages under microwave action, and the surface edge area remains frozen for a certain period of time. The temperature distribution of concrete surface is a decisive factor affecting the degree of ice removal, and the concrete surface will generate residual heat after the microwave action ends. This phenomenon can delay the regression of the temperature distribution of the concrete surface, thus effectively preventing the re-freezing of the ice layer.

Effect of aircraft deicer on deicer-scaling resistance and frost resistance of airport pavement concrete

This paper studies the effect of aircraft deicer on deicer-scaling resistance and frost resistance of airport pavement concrete. The mass loss and surface profile of non-air-entrained and air-entrained concrete eroded by water and aircraft deicer are analysed. The surface profile, mass loss rate and relative dynamic elasticity modulus of air-entrained concrete eroded by water and 5% aircraft deicer are discussed during freeze-thaw cycles. It is shown that the low and medium concentration deicer has a negative effect on the deicer-scaling resistance of concrete, and 5% aircraft deicer has the greatest influence. Adding air-entraining agent can improve the deicer-scaling resistance of concrete. Compared with water, 5% aircraft deicer has a negative effect on the frost resistance of air-entrained concrete. The deicer-scaling resistance and frost resistance of air-entrained concrete meet requirements for airport pavement in the most severely cold regions in China.

Applicability of PAVEAIR for Airport Pavement Management: Comparison between Military and Civilian Runways

Applicability of PAVEAIR for Airport Pavement Management: Comparison between Military and Civilian Runways