A Review of PCN Determination of Airport Pavements Using FWD/HWD Test

Abstract

Airport pavements are widely constructed as airport runways, taxiways, and aprons. The airport traffic should be considered during the design stage of airport pavements before the construction. To protect airport pavements from negligent overload, a pavement strength rating system and an aircraft load classification system are adopted. Under the rating systems developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Aircraft Classification Number (ACN) and Pavement Classification Number (PCN) are calculated to assess the aircraft loads and the load-carrying capacity of the airport pavements for unrestricted operations. With the increase in the air transport demand, increasing attention on the continuous evaluation of airport pavement conditions is introduced to airports across the globe. The load-carrying capacity can be evaluated to assess airport pavement conditions by calculating the value of PCN continuously during the service cycle of pavements. The value of PCN can be estimated by testing the response of stationary dynamic loads, adopting a Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) or a Heavy Weight Deflectometer (HWD) device that simulates the stress generated by aircraft movements. By evaluating the PCN continuously in Airport Pavement Management System (APMS), cyclic determinations of the load-carrying capacity can be conducted to support the maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) decision-makers. This review summarizes the methodology for determining the PCN and the tests conducted for evaluating the strength of airport pavement presented in the published literature. Further, the review highlights the benefits of determining PCNs by adopting the FWD or HWD field data with more precise results through mechanistic procedures.

Reporting the Bearing Capacity of Airfield Pavements Using PCR Index

“…The present investigation focuses on the reporting of the bearing capacity of an airfield pavement using the upcoming ACR-PCR system, which is expected to be fully applicable by November 2024. Since this system is expected to replace the so far used ACN-PCN system, it is of paramount importance to highlight the potentials of the new advances in this field, which is of particular interest for several researchers internationally [1,11,17,25]. The implementation of the upcoming ACR-PCR system may be even more critical since it is intended to be also applied in countries that do not mandate prescriptive methods for PCN and PCR determination [1].…”

“…The research process included data collection with NDT equipment. More specifically, measurements were carried out with the Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) and the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), which also constitute the standard practice for the assessment of airfield pavements [9][10][11][12][13][14]. Moreover, limited cores were extracted to provide supportive information to the NDT testing, considering mainly the estimation of the thickness and of the mechanical characteristics of the Asphalt Concrete (AC) layers.…”

A Case Study on Distresses of Concrete Pavements Supported on a Retaining Wall

“…Evaluations of pavement performance can be broadly divided into two tasks: (a) the assessment of the conditions of pavement structures and (b) investigation of the quality of the subgrade. Assessing conditions of pavement structure often involves the identification of distresses through visual surveys, determination of slab performance through deflection testing [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], and checking the quality of concrete via coring [21][22][23][24][25]. Smith et al [26] conducted a comprehensive investigation into the utilization of falling weight deflectometer (FWD) data for mechanistic-empirical pavement design and rehabilitation procedures, establishing the efficacy of FWD tests in pavement evaluation and rehabilitation.…”

Dynamic Response Analysis of Airport Pavement under Impact Loading

“…Sun calculated the required response values for the load-bearing capacity of airport pavements using HWD or FWD. This helps airport managers to assess the performance of airport pavements to ensure safe operation [6]. Yuan Jifeng investigated the effect of impact loading on the damage level and mechanical response of recycled aggregate reinforced concrete on airport pavements with different thicknesses and reinforcement ratios using FWD.…”