Nondestructive Pavement Testing

The Federal Aviation Administration needs fast, accurate methods of evaluating the strength and condition of existing airport pavements and subgrades. Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) test equipment exist, are widely used in the highway community, and have a potential value in the airport environment to increase the average life of pavements by optimizing the maintenance schedule and reducing the average life-cycle costs. There is an urgent need for standardized test procedures for conducting non-destructive testing and evaluation (NDT&E) for determining the condition of existing airport pavements.

Initial research efforts will focus on updating the current FAA Advisory Circular to include guidance on falling-weight deflectometer (FWD) use for airport pavements.

Also of significant importance is the development of procedures for measurement of the roughness profile and the development of a runway roughness profile index to characterize the roughness encountered by aircraft on the pavement surface.

Other phases of this project will investigate new standards and guidance for non-destructive pavement evaluation using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), Spectral Analysis of Surface Waves (SASW), Impact Echo (IE) or similar advanced techniques.

Project Milestones:
    Literature Review
        (Completed)

    Update to Advisory Circular 150/5370-11
        (Draft Submitted)

    Modify and distribute FAA Backcalculation software
        (Software Completed - awaiting documentation and Help files)

    Provide additional reports on FWD equipment and analyses
        (In Process -four reports published)

    Provide additional reports on other NDT Technologies

    Publish methodology for determining layer thickness

 

Contact Project Lead: Dr. Gordon Hayhoe
 

Last Update: 11/24/2004