Airport Pavement Design

By laurent Porot
Technology Implementer,
Shell Bitumen Sustainable development

Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell

10th July 2007, London
Agenda

1. Background
2. What are the key parameters for airport pavements
3. What about pavement design
4. What is new in airport pavement engineering
5. Conclusions

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
1. Background
2. What are the key parameters for airport pavements?
3. What about pavement design?
4. What is new in airport pavement engineering?
5. Conclusions

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
 A road can fail a runway can not

Airport pavements must exhibit higher performances than road

pavements and are less tolerant of failures
Which properties should be optimised
What is the reality

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Airport pavement specificity

Airport pavement is not as unique as a road!

Apron Terminal

Runway
Taxiway

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Airport vs. Road

• In terms of geometry
Wider, shorter length and low transversal slope
• In terms of loadings
Higher load up to 16bars, up to 6 wheels
Low speed on taxiways, high speed on runways
• In terms of pavement
Lower traffic volume 104 instead of 106 cycles
Random in loading application
• In terms of serviceability
Skid resistance
FOD
Traffic control
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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
1. Background

2. What are the key parameters for airport pavements?

3. What about pavement design?
4. What is new in airport pavement engineering?
5. Conclusions

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Airport pavement functions
Service value: Maintenance:
•Permanent deformation •Rubber removal
•Surface Shear •Surface sealant
•Skid resistance •De-icing
•Water evacuation •Works under traffic control
•FOD / integrity •Overlay on concrete
•Fuel spilling
•Joint sealant

Top layers

Bound base layers

Asset value:
•Structural need
•Cracking
•Permanent deformation Granular base layers

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Airport pavement functions
Service value: Maintenance:
•Permanent deformation •Rubber removal
•Surface Shear •Surface sealant
•Skid resistance •De-icing
•Water evacuation •Works under traffic control
•FOD / integrity •Overlay on concrete
•Fuel spilling
•Joint sealant

Top layers

Bound base layers

Asset value:
•Structural need
•Cracking
•Permanent deformation Granular base layers

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Permanent deformation

• Degradation on aprons, taxiways, runway entrances

Mainly at aircraft stop lines

• Material performances:
Static loading more than dynamic loading
Stiffness at low speed (low frequency)
Low energy dissipation

• Suitable solution
Thin asphalt system for top layers (SMA)
High modulus base layer
Polymer modified bitumen PmB

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Cracking resistance Truck standard axle

• Taxiways and runways

Various types: fatigue, thermal,
ageing, reflective
Can lead to integrity loss  FOD
• In connection with strain / stress
levels (higher level and longer time application)
B 777 gear
• Material performances:
Fatigue, self healing
Flexibility at low temperature

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Strength and structural need

• Structural value of the pavement itself

Spread load on sub grade and withstand traffic flow
Valid on aprons, taxiways, runways

• Material performance
Stiffness at various conditions

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Strength and structural need
Master Curve at 15°C
• Structural value of the pavement itself
100000
Spread load on sub grade and withstand traffic flow
Valid on aprons, taxiways, runways
High T°
Low T°
• Material performance
10000
Low frequency
High frequency

Stiffness at various conditions

Modulus, MPa

Asphalt Mix A
1000

15°C 10Hz Asphalt Mix B

Asphalt Mix C
100
1,E-03 1,E-02 1,E-01 1,E+00 1,E+01 1,E+02 1,E+03 1,E+04 1,E+05 1,E+06
Shift Frequency

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Strength and structural need

• Structural value of the pavement itself

Spread load on sub grade and withstand traffic flow
Valid on aprons, taxiways, runways

• Material performance
Stiffness at various conditions
Dense asphalt concrete
Master Curve at 15°C

100000

• Depends on the load conditions High T°

Low frequency Low T°
High frequency
10000

Modulus, MPa
Asphalt Mix A
1000

15°C 10Hz Asphalt Mix B

Asphalt Mix C
100
1,E-03 1,E-02 1,E-01 1,E+00 1,E+01 1,E+02 1,E+03 1,E+04 1,E+05 1,E+06
Shift Frequency

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Fuel resistance

• Degradation on taxiways, aprons

Due to chemical agent
Can lead to integrity loss  FOD

• Material performance required:

Fuel resistance
Dense asphalt / closed surface

• Special products available

Fuel resisting binder instead of tar

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
 Airport pavements are specific

Pavement materials have to address key performance parameters

How to predict and characterise these performances?

Relevant testing?
Under which conditions?
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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Specification for permanent deformation

• For road applications

Wheel tracking test
 Dynamic loading
 Standard road loading
Creep test static or cyclic

• What is suitable for airport applications French Wheel Tracking Tester

Static loading
Slow speed related (loading time)
Heavy load, high pressure

Creep test 17
Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Specification for cracking resistance

• For road applications

Fatigue test
 For 1 million cycles
 Strain level in range of 60-150 micro strain
Thermal cracking susceptibility
2 points fatigue test

• What is suitable for airport applications

Fatigue test
 For 10 000 cycles
 High strain level in connection with heavy load
 Healing effect
Fracture toughness

Fracture toughness
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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Strength and structural need

• For road applications

Elastic modulus (at low strain level)
 Indirect tensile strength, ITS at 20°C
 Full complex modulus measurement

• What is suitable for airport applications

High strain  maybe not any more in the elastic domain
Need for complex modulus measurement and interpretation
At various conditions especially for slow speed
Look at visco-elasticity of the material

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Fuel resisting material

• Common fuel immersion test procedure

Immersion of samples in kerosene Specimen mass loss as a function of Kerosine Immersion Time
BBSG 0/10, 5% voids

Results compared to dry samples 18

16

• Mass loss

Specimen mass loss, %

14

12

As a function of immersion time 10

Less than 1% after 24h 6

• Specimen stability after immersion

2

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Indirect Tensile Strength Immersion time, h

 Limited use, depend on integrity of specimen

Direct compression Strength
Not less than 75% of strength loss

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
1. Background
2. What are the key parameters for airport pavements?

3. What about pavement design?

4. What is new in airport pavement engineering?
5. Conclusions

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Current approach - ACN/PCN Principle

• International system set up by ICAO in Annex 14

• ACN/PCN approach
Aircraft Classification Number, ACN
 Maximum mass, quality of the soil support, type of structure
Pavement Classification Number, PCN
Comparison of ACN to PCN
• The CBR (Californian Bearing Ratio) method
Empirical approach using a simple equivalent wheel
Pavement thickness equivalence & layer equivalency factor per material
• Limitation
Based on DC10 as the heaviest aircraft (in correlation with the AASHO road test)
Empirical method based on CBR and material equivalency
Does not take into account material performances
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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Effect of super jumbo jets

• Introduction of large body aircraft

Bogies of 4 wheels, up to 6 wheels

• Aggressiveness of B777, B747, A340, A380

Much higher than small body aircraft
Research program has shown new
pavement failure from bituminous layers

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
 The new FAA method
• FAA has developed a Layered Elastic airport pavement Design (LEDFAA) to
comply with large aircraft body (software available for free)
• Bases on multilayered model similar to Shell’s BISAR
• Input
Real traffic flow and load configuration
Elastic modulus of material

• Still limitations
Does not take into account
climate condition (fatigue law)

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Other approaches

• Aircraft Loading Index ALI approach

• 3D Finite Element method
• Research & Experiments
National Airport Pavement Test Facility, NAPTF (Atlantic City, US)
Pavement Experimental Programme, PEP (LCPC-Airbus)

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
1. Background
2. What are the key parameters for airport pavements?
3. What about pavement design?

4. What is new in airport pavement engineering?

5. Conclusions

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Experience sharing – FAA (US)

• FAA recommendation for bitumen selection (AC 150-5370-10B P401)

Use of the PG grade framework as a reference
In range of PG58 and PG76 for surface layers
PG bump regarding traffic classes for runway, taxiway/Aprons

• FAA recommendation for asphalt mix design

Shift from Marshal method to Superpave method
Use of Superpave Gyratory Compactor with Ndesign and Nmax

• Some on going research for more fundamental specifications

Fuel resistance sealer and binder (research project 05-02)
Use of Stone Matrix Asphalt SMA (research project 04-04)
Energy ratio approach for assessing fatigue performance at high strain levels
(University of Illinois research partnership)
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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Experience sharing – Middle East

• Characterisation of permanent deformation

resistance
Model Mobile Load Simulator MMLS from South Africa
Adaptation of the speed and cycle number for airfield
application

• Introduction of PG82
Greater high temperature criteria to better fit with hot dry climate

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Experience sharing – Europe

• Airbus research programme

Pavement Experimental Programme 1&2 1998-2003 to assess impact of A380
on pavement (PEP1 bituminous pavement, PEP2 rigid pavement)
 Simulation of pavement strain/stress distribution
 Cracking performances
PEP 3 to start in 2007 to assess the tyre pressure effect on permanent
deformation of asphalt pavement
 7 asphalt mixtures to be assessed under various conditions of loading

• French BBA, a dedicated asphalt mixture for Airfield application

Gap graded asphalt mixture
Special specification against fatigue cracking and permanent deformation

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
1. Introduction
2. Airport pavement similar to road pavement?
3. What are the key parameters for airport?
4. What about specification?

5. Conclusions

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Conclusions

A road can fail a runway can not

• Airport pavements are different than road pavements
Function, loading, use, operation

• Key parameters for airport pavement have greater impact

Static loading
High strain and stress levels
Extreme conditions

• Road specifications might be not adapted to suit airfield application

Need for specific dedicated pavement engineering

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Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell, 10th of July 2007 London
Airport Pavement Design
Airport Pavement Design

Airport Workshop – Lafarge/Shell

10th July 2007, London