Concrete Overload Test at the FAA National Airport Pavement Test Facility

Abstract

To evaluate the ICAO Overload Criterion for rigid pavements, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is conducting full-scale tests on a new concrete overlay pavement. At the National Airport Pavement Test Facility (NAPTF), the test pavement was constructed with a 9-in thick Portland cement concrete (PCC) surface layer and a 10-in thick aggregate subbase placed on medium strength subgrade. The FAA P-501 standard materials with a design flexural strength of 650 psi were used to build PCC slabs. Various types of instrumentation sensors were installed in the pavement to measure subgrade moisture, concrete temperature, slab movement, and dynamic strain responses. The FAA P-501 concrete materials were characterized by the flexural strength from laboratory cured beam samples and the in-situ modulus derived from portable seismic pavement analyzer (PSPA) testing on as-build slabs.