Evaluation of Airfield Pavements Using FAARFIELD

The safe operation of aircrafts is thought to be the primary goal that has to be achieved by the airport authorities. In order to achieve this goal, particular attention should be paid to one of the most important airport facilities, which are airfield pavements. The major objective of these pavements is to provide adequate load-carrying capacity and good ride quality. For this reason a proper pavement design is essential. The present research study deals with the verification of a runway’s flexible pavement design, using the analytical method of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This approach is considered to be of particular interest for airport authorities internationally, who, at the time being, often face the challenge of combining previously adopted empirical design methods with advanced analytical tools as well. During the verification procedure several critical aspects were raised and detailed analysis concerning the principles of the analytical FAA design procedure was performed.