A new measurement system to test the traffic volumes planar distribution of airport runway

Currently, the airport pavement design only considered the different horizontal standard deviations at the end and the middle of the runway, which had ignored the longitudinal distribution of airport runway traffic volumes (ARTV). Especially for aircrafts with short takeoff and landing distance, their operations are not full of the whole runway. In allusion to the characteristics of ARTV, this paper developed a measurement system to acquire the wheel tracks distribution of an aircraft with short takeoff and landing distance. Based on the statistics of the test results, the horizontal and longitudinal distribution statistical regulations of ARTV were obtained. At last, the longitudinal passage factor was proposed and the planar distribution model was established to evaluate the ARTV at each point of the runway. By comparison with current design specifications, it is indicated that pavement thickness will be designed more conservative without considering the planar distribution of traffic volumes. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.