Structural Evaluation by FWD Testing for Luanda Airport Pavement

Luanda Airport was built around 1960's to accommodate light, middle and heavy traffic. Currently the heavy aircrafts frequent this airport and with high impact on pavement are Boeing 737-800, Boeing 747-400 and Airbus 340-300. Since 1975 to the present date, the aircraft traffic has been increasing and no rehabilitation and maintenance works has been made on the pavement. The Aircraft Classification Number-Pavement Classification (ACN-PCN) methods developed by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) were used to evaluate and define the current pavement PCN. This study revealed that the Airbus 340-300 presents higher PCN than Boeing 747-400 and Boeing 737-800, which should be considered in the new structural design of the airport. The preliminary calculations of ACN-PCN revealed that the structural capacity of the main runway of Luanda Airport is sufficient and adequate to support the predicted future aircraft traffic for the next 20 years, in that condition the present prediction will be maintained during the design period.