AIRCRAFT RESPONSE BASED AIRPORT PAVEMENT ROUGHNESS EVALUATION

Airport pavement roughness is studied including both the subjective evaluation and digital simulation. Pilots' subjective evaluation on surface characteristics is clarified by questionnaires, which indicates that the roughness is one of the most highly influential factors on riding quality and safety. The response of aircraft motion to the longitudinal profiles of airport pavements when departing on runways and taxiing on taxiways was simulated using the program TAXI. The results indicate that the aircraft response varies not only with the surface characteristics (i. e., the amplitudes and wavelengths of the profile), but also with aircraft speed. Finally, roughness criteria for runways and taxiways are proposed.