Full-Scale Tests of Aircraft Overloads on Airport Flexible Pavements

Between 2014 and 2016 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) conducted full-scale traffic tests of flexible pavements at its National Airport Pavement Test Facility (NAPTF) at the William J. Hughes Technical Center, Atlantic City International Airport, NJ, U.S. The purpose of these tests, part of NAPTF Construction Cycle 7 (CC7), was to evaluate the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) existing criteria for allowable occasional aircraft overloads on flexible airport pavements. ICAO Annex 14 currently limits such overloads to 10 percent above the published pavement classification number (PCN). The applied traffic consisted of the design gear loads alternating with increasing levels of overloads (2-wheel, 4-wheel, and 6-wheel) in a specific sequence. FAA tests confirmed that the ICAO criteria are highly conservative. While higher traffic loads led to earlier failures, overloads of up to 50% above PCN did not alter the parameters of the failure curve, suggesting that for overloads up to this magnitude, the cumulative damage factor (CDF)-based failure model can be used reliably to compute reduced life. However, very high overloads of 90–100% above PCN caused more rapid acceleration of the failure. The findings of this full-scale test will be used to support future revisions to the existing overload criteria.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784481554.008
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780784481554
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
• Corporate Authors:

  American Society of Civil Engineers

  1801 Alexander Bell Drive
  Reston, VA  United States  20191-4400
• Authors:
  • Brill, D R
  • Yin, H
• Conference:
  • International Conference on Transportation and Development 2018
  • Location: Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, United States
  • Date: 2018-7-15 to 2018-7-18
• Publication Date: 2018-7

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 66-77
• Monograph Title: International Conference on Transportation and Development 2018: Airfield and Highway Pavements

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aircraft; Airport runways; Bearing capacity; Flexible pavements; Oversize loads; Prototype tests
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01867046
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780784481554
• Files: TRIS, ASCE
• Created Date: Dec 13 2022 10:04AM