Concepts for the Development of a Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation System for Rigid Airfield Pavements

摘要

This thesis develops a complete system for nondestructive testing and evaluation of rigid airfield pavements. An extensive review of present destructive and nondestructive equipment and methodologies is made to form the basis for selection of the equipment and analytical model used in this research. A brief description of the selected Dynatest Model 8000 Falling Weight Deflectometer and the ILLISLAB finite element computer model is presented. Three Air Force installations were chosen for in-depth study of pavement response to FWD loads under a variety of environmental and geological conditions. Techniques are presented to determine the location of maximum damage to rigid pavement slabs for one or any combination of aircraft, and the validity of the calculated stresses is established through comparisons of measured and predicted deflections at joints. Major study findings include: (1) new designations for pavement features based on actual loading conditions, (2) guidelines for planning and conducting large scale evaluations of major airfield systems, (3) a computer-based determination of E and K, (4) joint behavior prediction under fluctuating temperatures and their effect on generated slab stresses, (5) procedures to account for the annual distribution of traffic over the range of temperatures normally experienced at any facility, (6) a simplistic means of estimating total past damage from aircraft operations, and (7) development of computer programs to predict remaining structural life of rigid airfield pavements.