Computer technologies for concrete airfield pavement design

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to develop formulas, expressions and a computer program for concrete airfield pavement design under the impact of all Airbus 380 main landing gears taking into consideration the design factor of tensile stresses at the top and bottom of a concrete slab. The top-down cracking in concrete slabs has not been directly simulated in structural analysis models used for one- and two-layer concrete airfield pavement design by the Ukrainian Standard. Empirical formulas for the calculation of top tensile stress and the coverages to failure using the criterion of top tensile stress are obtained. Computer program “Aerodrom 380” has been developed for the design of concrete airfield pavement thickness. It provides the required thickness of a concrete slab needed to support an Airbus 380 over a particular subgrade and uses the bottom and top tensile stresses as design factors. “Aerodrom 380” contains a fatigue function for determining the number of coverages to failure permissible for a concrete slab before it has top-bottom and bottom-up cracks. The results obtained with this program are compared to other solutions using the Ukrainian Standard SNiP 2.05.08–85, “LIRA-SAPR”, software and the FAARFIELD computer program. The anticipated life of a concrete airfield pavement calculated using computer program “Aerodrom 380” is about 70% of the FAARFIELD pavement life.

Keyword : concrete airfield pavement, airfield rigid pavement, design factor, aircraft, main landing gear, flexural strength, fatigue failure, top tensile stress, bottom tensile stress