Field Test of a Foamed Polystyrene Board Expedient Road Test Section in Central Alaska.

摘要

Foamed polystyrene in board stock form was tested as an expedient surface insulation with XM-18 airfield landing mats as a trafficking surface. The insulation was placed on a frozen subgrade in two layers, making a total thickness of four in. The test section was constructed in May 1971 near Fairbanks, Alaska, at the USA CRREL Farmers Loop Road Facility. The section was trafficked with a load cart which applied a total wheel load of 26.2 kips on a C-130 main landing gear wheel having a tire inflation pressure of 80 psi. Four hundred passes of the load cart were made on the test section; the final level surveys showed a minimum of settlement and structural distress to the insulation boards. The maximum depth of thaw beneath the insulation did not exceed 20 in. during each of the summers of 1971 and 1972. This method of expedient road construction would provide satisfactory service throughout a summer thaw season and probably longer without deleterious effects on the subgrade and the adjacent environment.