Determination of the remaining life of rigid airfield pavement through super-accelerated pavement testing

Determination of remaining life of rigid airfield pavement generally involves a combination of engineering judgment and results of discrete test applications on the pavement and subgrade. Fatigue of pavement is almost never directly observed when examining long-term pavement performance of airfields. Observation and detection of distress and response can assist in assessing the remaining pavement life of in-service rigid pavements. In this study, accelerated pavement testing (APT) was employed to assess the remaining life of Runway 16/34 at Fort Worth Meacham International Airport in Forth Worth, Texas. A traffic model was established using reported Federal Aviation Administration aircraft operations. The pavement response, including the impact of fatigue, was observed under super-accelerated pavement (SAP) testing with input from the established traffic model. Investigation of the pavement consisted of two phases. The first phase involved continuous deflection profiles of the entire runway using the Rolling Dynamic Deflectometer (RDD). From the runway deflection profiles, candidate test locations were selected and tested to determine potential test locations outside of the main runway, as operational constraints prohibited testing of the main runway. A comparison of deflection responses was made between Runway 16/34 and the candidate locations. Three test locations adjacent to Runway 16/34 were selected: Taxiway A6, the South Run-Up area, and the North Run-Up area. The second phase of this study consisted of evaluating the remaining life of the rigid airfield pavement using a reconfigured SAP testing application of the RDD, referred to as the Stationary Dynamic Deflectometer (SDD). Nearly 200,000 applications were applied to three independent test points (center, edge, and corner) at each selected test location. Deflection responses were measured and analyzed, resulting in two principal findings. First, visible crack development did not occur for the duration of SDD SAP testing and as a result no subsequent fatigue failure. Second, an acceptable deflection response of the airfield pavement, by three independent test slabs, supporting a relatively sufficient remaining pavement life. Variations occurred among the three test slabs, which are attributed to numerous observed conditions including environment, aircraft traffic, and construction composition. Based on the SDD SAP testing, aircraft traffic alone should not significantly degrade the pavement over the next 20-year period. However, the impact of other factors (environmental conditions, subgrade conditions, traffic growth, etc.), combined with aircraft traffic, have not been assessed in this studyCivil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin