Bearing Capacity and Structural Classification of Flexible Airport Pavements

Abstract

Due to the large variety in aircraft types and loads, the use of a comprehensive rating system for the aircraft loads and the bearing capacity of the pavements has been an obligation of airport authorities. Among the major features of such classification systems is their relation to the structural performance and the bearing capacity of pavements. However, implementation of today’s official rating system, the aircraft classification number–pavement classification number developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization, has shown that in many cases, it is difficult to incorporate the information given by modern procedures currently used for the analysis and evaluation of performance of airfield pavements. The reporting often fails to reflect the actual bearing capacity of the pavement within the high standards set by several modern approaches used for airport pavement design and evaluation. In this work, an attempt to improve the correlation of pavement strength reporting with the bearing capacity is presented and discussed.