TY - GEN
T1 - Implications of climate variation in flexible airport pavement design and performance
AU - Barbi, Paula
AU - Tavassoti, Pejoohan
AU - Tighe, Susan
AU - Baaj, Hassan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Airfield and Highway Pavements 2021: Airfield Pavement Technology - Selected Papers from the International Airfield and Highway Pavements Conference 2021. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Climate change impacts, especially in terms of rising temperatures and changes in precipitation patterns, have been widely noted in several regions in Canada during the past two decades. Such remarkable changes raise concerns about pavement serviceability, since both temperature and excess precipitation can ultimately affect the pavement materials properties. This paper focuses on two major factors, namely temperature and moisture level fluctuations. An increase in the maximum temperature can decrease asphalt concrete stiffness making the pavement more prone to rutting, shoving, and premature age hardening. On the other hand, high levels of saturation in the granular layers and subgrade can lead to pavement degradation through a reduction in the resilient modulus of these layers, increasing the rate of permanent deformations. However, accounting for realistic environmental factors in airport pavement design could be a challenge since most of the existing design methods do not systematically consider moisture and temperature variation during the service life of airfield pavements. Therefore, this paper proposes a methodology on how to efficiently account for temperature and moisture fluctuation by quantifying their effects on the performance of flexible airport pavements. To this end, the damage occurred over discrete short periods of time is estimated, considering the corresponding temperature and modulus at each stage. The cumulative damage is then calculated and compared with that of conventional design methods. The findings of this research indicate that it is crucial for airport pavement designers to consider realistic climatic factors to account for climate change implications in their airfield pavement design practices.
AB - Climate change impacts, especially in terms of rising temperatures and changes in precipitation patterns, have been widely noted in several regions in Canada during the past two decades. Such remarkable changes raise concerns about pavement serviceability, since both temperature and excess precipitation can ultimately affect the pavement materials properties. This paper focuses on two major factors, namely temperature and moisture level fluctuations. An increase in the maximum temperature can decrease asphalt concrete stiffness making the pavement more prone to rutting, shoving, and premature age hardening. On the other hand, high levels of saturation in the granular layers and subgrade can lead to pavement degradation through a reduction in the resilient modulus of these layers, increasing the rate of permanent deformations. However, accounting for realistic environmental factors in airport pavement design could be a challenge since most of the existing design methods do not systematically consider moisture and temperature variation during the service life of airfield pavements. Therefore, this paper proposes a methodology on how to efficiently account for temperature and moisture fluctuation by quantifying their effects on the performance of flexible airport pavements. To this end, the damage occurred over discrete short periods of time is estimated, considering the corresponding temperature and modulus at each stage. The cumulative damage is then calculated and compared with that of conventional design methods. The findings of this research indicate that it is crucial for airport pavement designers to consider realistic climatic factors to account for climate change implications in their airfield pavement design practices.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85108158863&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85108158863&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1061/9780784483527.017
DO - 10.1061/9780784483527.017
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85108158863
T3 - Airfield and Highway Pavements 2021: Airfield Pavement Technology - Selected Papers from the International Airfield and Highway Pavements Conference 2021
SP - 193
EP - 204
BT - Airfield and Highway Pavements 2021
A2 - Ozer, Hasan
A2 - Rushing, John F.
A2 - Leng, Zhen
PB - American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
T2 - International Airfield and Highway Pavements 2021: Airfield Pavement Technology
Y2 - 8 June 2021 through 10 June 2021
ER -