Analysis of Full-Scale Geosynthetic Reinforced Airfield Pavement Subjected to Accelerated Aircraft Loading

Abstract

A full-scale airfield pavement section was constructed and trafficked by the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) to evaluate the performance of geogrid reinforced flexible airfield pavement structures subjected to simulated aircraft traffic. The test section included nine different test items (one unreinforced test item and eight comparable reinforced test items) containing seven different commercial geosynthetic products. The primary objective of this experiment was to determine if the collective behavior of a variety of geosynthetic products demonstrated an overall performance improvement in thicker airfield pavements carrying heavy aircraft loads. For the Department of Defense (DOD) to make optimal use of geosynthetics, the ideal would be for there to be multiple products in a competitive market that improve overall airfield performance. The rutting behavior, pressure response, and falling weight deflectometer response of each pavement section were monitored at selected traffic intervals, and the data were analyzed to determine the potential benefit of using geosynthetics to reinforce flexible airfield pavements. The results indicated that the inclusion of less than half of the commercial geosynthetics improved rutting performance, suggesting the overall marketplace of geosynthetics should not be expected to, by default, improve thicker airfield rutting performance.