Full-scale test on emergency pavement repair under aeroplane loading

Abstract

To investigate the structural response of emergency pavement repairs under aeroplane loading and verify the backfill material and structural applicability, two craters were backfilled. Crater 1 comprised a 2.4 m thick layer of recovered flying objects, 0.4 m of graded crushed rock (GCR), 0.2 m of roller-compacted concrete and a fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) course. Crater 2 comprised a 2.4 m thick layer of flying objects, 0.6 m of GCR and a FRP course. Static and dynamic loads were applied using two aeroplanes. The results showed that the FRP pavement layer reduced the maximum deflection of crater 2 by 21%. Crater 1 and the concrete pavement were both slightly rigid structures with a strong load-transfer ability. The dynamic deflection basin curves of crater 2 could be fitted using a Gaussian function, while the curves of crater 1 and the concrete pavement were fitted using a quartic polynomial. Under static loading, the earth pressures of crater 2 at −0.6 m, −0.4 m and −0.2 m depths were 4.3, 9.0 and 9.6 times of those of crater 1, respectively. At a depth of −0.2 m, the earth pressure of crater 1 was 0.11 MPa, while that of crater 2 was 1.06 MPa. The results can be used to guide rapid quality inspection and optimisation design of emergency pavement repair structures and materials.