Analyses and Prediction of Granular Layer Rutting Trends in FAA’s NAPTF Construction Cycle 5 Pavement Test Sections

This paper investigates damage accumulation trends observed in six instrumented airfield pavement sections built with two different subbase materials and tested under various wheel loads applied using four different landing gear configurations at the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) National Airport Pavement Test Facility (NAPTF) located in Atlantic City, NJ. Pavement rutting evaluations indicated that the test sections constructed with crushed quarry screenings (designated as P154) in the subbase performed better than those built with dense graded aggregates (DGA mix). Also, greater rut depths were observed in sections where 6-wheel landing gears were applied in place of 10-wheel landing gears. However, the width of the rut crater found in the 10-wheel section was wider than that of the 6-wheel section. The rut accumulation rate was found to be much greater in sections initially subjected to higher loads. Additionally, the measured Multi-depth deflectometer deflections were analyzed to predict the final surface rut profiles of the 6-wheel sections. A stress history based rutting prediction model was proposed to determine realistic surface profiles based on real world traffic in airport pavements. The proposed model could take into consideration the apparent random travel paths of an airplane and predict the shapes of the granular layer deformation profiles accurately. The analyses showed that by considering the stress history effects on granular material behavior, the proposed model could calculate unbound aggregate layer deformations subjected to heavy aircraft load applications with wander within an acceptable range.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AV070 Standing Committee on Aircraft/Airport Compatibility.
• Authors:
  • Sarker, Priyanka
  • Tutumluer, Erol
  • Garg, Navneet
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 7p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Airport runways; Crushed aggregates; Dense graded aggregates; Granular materials; Landing gear; Mathematical models; Mathematical prediction; Rutting; Subbase (Pavements); Test sections; Wheel loads
• Identifier Terms: National Airport Pavement Test Facility
• Uncontrolled Terms: Multi-depth deflectometers; Rut depth
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01661571
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-05105
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 28 2018 1:25PM