The conventional empirical methods for structural design of flexible aircraft pavements were adapted from highway practice, then modified and extrapolated to cater for the airfield situation. The methodology was calibrated against the US Army Corps of Engineers full-scale trafficking tests conducted over 25 years ageo. These conventional design methods are now generally recognised to be inadequate to assess the effect of Boeing's B777, and of proposed New Large Aircraft (NLA). The B777's 6-wheel tridem gears and the NLA gears were not represented in the Corps tests. Also the conventional methods use single layer analysis so have no direct mechanism for crediting bound layers for their superior load spreading characteristics.
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