Eleonora Fois Fois
Implementation of Deflection Bowl Measurements for Structural Evaluations at Network Level of Airport Pavement Management System
CONI, MAURO;PORTAS, SILVIA;
2014-01-01
Abstract
The APMS is a useful tool for operators and managers, providing a systematic and objective method for pavement condition evaluation, maintenance planning decisions and budget allocation. The pavement evaluation process also includes the evaluation of structural capacity and, more specifically, the use of deflectometer testing device has become a basic part of the structural evaluation, allowing non-destructive and rapid to execute surveys. The measured deflection bowl is used for the back-analysis process, in order to evaluate the modulus of each layer. This application can be less cost effective, requiring experienced analyst and often providing more detail than necessary, especially for implementation at network-level of Airport PMS. These aspects are amplified for seasonal and regional airports, faced with low budget availability and looking for easy and rapid techniques. The investigation reported in this paper focused on developing a direct method for the assessment of the overall conditions as well single layer strength, based on deflections measured by performing HWD tests. The data collected by deflectometer campaign performed on the runway has been analyzed, focusing the attention on the factors that can affect the measurements. The survey was performed on five alignments, as required by international regulations, in different seasons and with different loads, then the relative influence was examined, conducting a correlation aimed on comparing deflections. With comparable data, the immediately visual rating of deflection values has been conducted, adopting the relative benchmarking methodology. The application at network level of Airport PMS allows the rapid overview of structural conditions, identifying areas that need further detailed investigations.Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.