Severity effects of dual-tandem and dual-tridem repeated heavier aircraft gear loading on pavement rutting performance

In this paper, the rutting behaviour of flexible test pavements subjected to multiple-wheel heavy aircraft gear loading at the National Airport Pavement Test Facility (NAPTF) are characterized. Two series of traffic tests were conducted. During the first series, a Boeing 777 (B777) aircraft gear and a Boeing 747 (B747) gear were trafficked on two low-strength subgrade and two medium-strength subgrade flexible test sections until the test sections were deemed failed. The second series of traffic tests involved repeated loading of six-wheel aircraft gear (the same as B777 gear) and four-wheel gear on low-strength subgrade test sections with variable granular subbase thicknesses. The results showed that the mean rut depths (RD) accumulated under B777 loading and B747 loading were similar. For a similar number of load repetitions, low-strength subgrade test sections with reduced subbase thicknesses yielded larger RD. The NAPTF failure criteria did not yield consistent RD.