FAA Non – Destructive Airport Pavement Testing

1. FAA Non – Destructive Airport Pavement Testing

2. Glossary of Terms • HWD – Heavy Weight Deflectometer • APMS – Airport Pavement Management System • LWD – Light Weight Deflectometer • CC – Construction Cycle

3. Review of DGAC – FAA Meeting Sept. 2007 • DGAC provided the status of the use of HWD at Bonneuil. • This plan included comparison of HWD equipment owned by DGAC and STAC. • To perform the comparison both HWD’s will be used on rigid and flexible pavements over anchored pavement sensors. • The HWD research is intended to compare theoretical vs. actual values and to refine pavement design methodologies.

4. Review of DGAC – FAA Meeting Sept. 2007 • The FAA provided a brief on their effort to transition MicroPAVER to the internet. Funding for this initiative was cancelled. • Some of the challenges were identified such as security concerns and the potential release of proprietary information. • Since the meeting in September the FAA has awarded the phased development of an Airport Pavement Management Database to our support contractor, SRA.

5. Review of DGAC – FAA Meeting Sept. 2007 • The FAA delivered a presentation on the use of a Light Weight Deflectometer (LWD) to better characterize subgrade. • The FAA purchased a LWD in 2008 to improve subgrade characterization input into LEDFAA. • Since the purchase, the FAA has been acquiring subgrade data during construction CC - 5. • This data is currently under review.

6. APMS Background Provide timely and accurate Pavement Condition Index (PCI) values, - Provide current pavement condition information to assist in making decisions on how best to allocate maintenance and construction funds. - Provide an airport pavement maintenance planning and budget tool.

7. APMS Implementation • The FAA is proposing to have a server installed at the WJHTC to be a repository for civil airport projects funded under the Airport Improvement Program (AIP) • The overall system will consist of multiple servers. Possible hosts include state agencies, airports, etc.

8. Proposed Initial APMS Implementation • By the FAA for AIP projects. • By FAA regions for state wide airport pavement management for small airports. • By state DOT’S for pavement management of General Aviation airports (NASAO interest). • By airport authorities overseeing multiple airports. • By consulting and engineering services companies for private or customer only access.

9. Ongoing Work • The PSPA work included a statistical correlation between PSPA modulus values and measured concrete strength for Construction Cycle 2. • GPR – the FAA and SRA have been using GSSI GPR equipment at the WJHTC to locate dowel bars and to measure the pavement layer thickness .

10. Ongoing Work, cont. • The FAA has been researching the feasibility of Automatic Crack Detection equipment and software to measure the condition of rigid pavement in NAPTF Construction Cycle 4 with QES. • Comparison of HWD and BAKFAA results with the actual pavement failure of NAPTF test pavements. Analysis is pending.

11. Future Work • Develop a new AC for Airport Pavement Roughness and provide ProFAA workshops as required. • Research the feasibility of using Magnetic Resonating Imaging (MRI) as a technology to verify dowel bar alignment/placement. • Extensive upgrade to add constraints to BAKFAA. This effort will replace the existing optimizations subroutines with a set of subroutines which allow the modulus values to be constrained within set upper and lower bounds.

12. Future Work, cont. • Determination of Rigid Pavement Layer Thickness and Modulus Using HWD. • Incorporating Global Positioning technology into FAA profile equipment. • Research criteria to determine/quantify rigid pavement groove failure.

13. FAA Point of Contact • Albert Larkin Project Manager, Non-Destructive Pavement Testing FAA Airport Technology R & D Branch AJP-6312, Building 296 William J. Hughes Technical Center Atlantic City, NJ 08405 Phone: (609) 485-5552 email: albert.larkin@faa.gov