Evaluation of Longitudinal Profiles for Airport Runways

This paper describes how the demand for air transportation increases yearly in Japan. However, there are no proper criteria on the maintenance and rehabilitation of airport runways based on evaluation of pavement surface characteristics. Recently, absolute longitudinal pavement surface profiles can be measured with accuracy using a non-contact type profilometer combined with Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and the authors have acquired a significant amount of profile data on highway pavements. Similar longitudinal profile measurements were carried out on an actual runway that was constructed in a principal international airport in the vicinity of Tokyo. The profile data were acquired at intervals of 10 cm, along seven lines on the runway surface, taking the gear configurations of Boeing 747 and 767 aircraft into account. Characteristics of the runway profiles using International Roughness Index (IRI) and Power Spectral Density (PSD) and others are presented in the paper. By making virtual profiles lacking for some specific range of wavelengths, dynamic behaviors for various types of aircraft were analyzed using the commercial software APRas. Ride Quality Factor (RQF) was computed based on the calculated RMS value of vertical accelerations at the Aircraft’s Center of Gravity (CGA) and at the Pilot’s Station (PSA). Using RQF, the evaluation of the aircraft’s ride quality during taxiing was carried out. It was concluded that longer wavelengths influence the aircraft motions much more significantly than shorter wavelengths when the aircraft is moving very fast just before taking off. Moreover, making a comparison between the calculated International Roughness Index (IRI) and PSD spectral analysis, it was also found that they were correlative to each other.