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Application of Light Weight Deflectometer to Assess Structural Competency of Nontraditional Airfield Pavements during Contingency Aircraft Operations

Date and Time: Monday, July 24: 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Location: Grand Ballroom C

 

Lead Presenter: Victor Garcia

Research Civil Engineer, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center

Speaker Biography

Dr. Victor M Garcia began his career at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in June 2021. Prior to joining ERDC, Dr. Garcia worked as a research associate at the Center for Transportation Infrastructure Systems for five years while pursuing his doctorate degree with support from Federal Highway Administration – David D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program (DDETFP). He completed his doctorate degree in civil engineering from The University of Texas at El Paso in 2021.

Dr. Garcia is the principal investigator for a couple of research projects sponsored by the U.S. Air Force and Navy. His research projects focuses on developing laboratory testing protocols for characterization of mineral aggregates commonly used in asphalt concrete, investigating pavement performance in contingency environments, and implementing in-place pavement recycling techniques for reconstruction of airfield pavements.

Co-Authors 

W. Jeremy Robinson, Research Civil Engineer, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center

Presentation Description/Paper Summary

This paper discusses the use of the heavy and light weight deflectometer devices, hereafter referred to as HWD and LWD, respectively, to monitor the structural condition of airfield pavements during aircraft operations at contingency environments. Four airfield pavements like those encountered at contingency environments, referred to as nontraditional airfield pavements, were selected to conduct accelerated pavement traffic testing with simulated C-17 and C-130 aircraft. Pavement rut development was monitored, and both HWD and LWD tests were also conducted at selected traffic intervals. Both HWD and LWD were capable of tracking the pavement deterioration under accelerated traffic testing, which indicates that the LWD could be considered a potential rapid and practical pavement evaluation tool for nontraditional pavements during contingency aircraft operations. Based on current rutting failure threshold, a termination criterion in terms of a reduction in the stiffness parameter from the LWD test could be preliminarily used to aid in expediently determining acceptable aircraft operations on nontraditional airfield pavements. The influence of key operational parameters such as base plate dimension, the depth of influence from the impact force, and pavement rut formation must be further investigated to improve the effectiveness and applicability of the LWD test for nontraditional airfield pavements. The results from this study could be of interest to other low-volume road applications such as in agriculture, oilfield, large construction sites, and mining where pavement evaluation and management practices could be improved with the use of practical tools such as the LWD during the operations of heavy equipment or machinery.

Presentation File

Poster