Concrete Pavement Overload Test at the FAA’s National Airport Pavement Test Facility

As part of Construction Cycle 8 (CC8) at the National Airport Pavement Test Facility (NAPTF), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is conducting full-scale tests on an unbonded concrete overlay test pavement. In preparation for receiving the Portland cement concrete (PCC) overlay, the relatively thin existing PCC surface layer was damaged by simulated heavy aircraft gear traffic applied by the NAPTF test vehicle. Data obtained from this initial trafficking phase will be used by the FAA to evaluate current ICAO standards for allowable aircraft overloads on rigid pavements. This paper discusses various aspects of the overload testing, including: pavement design, construction, and instrumentation, PCN evaluation, overload test procedures, and traffic test results. The difference in applied coverages to failure was used to evaluate the effect of the overload. In addition, the cause and failure mechanism of observed distresses were discussed. This overload test generated a unique full-scale test data set, which be used by the FAA to evaluate current ICAO standards for allowable aircraft overloads on rigid pavements.