FACTORS AFFECTING AIRFIELD PAVEMENT PERFORMANCE IN THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE ENTERPRISE WIDE

ABSTRACT

The United States Air Force is responsible for 1.7 billion square feet of concrete and asphalt airfield pavement which requires millions of dollars to maintain and repair each year. As funding constraints become more stringent, Air Force engineers must ensure the proper strategic approach is taken to manage airfield pavement maintenance and repair activities. The United States Air Force’s strategic approach is to use pavement asset management principles to prolong the life of the airfield pavement assets and to maintain the desirable operational mission’s level of service. One step in pavement asset management, which is often overlooked or not routinely performed, is to provide feedback on the effectiveness of the total pavement management system and alignment of design methods, specifications and policies with an agency’s goals. This research provides feedback to the United States Air Force regarding its current pavement management policies by conducting analysis on pavement distresses. Pavement distresses are a key variable collected to assess a pavement’s condition. To assist in providing feedback, analysis was performed to determine which airfield pavement distresses are causing the largest cumulative reduction in pavement conditions across the entire United States Air Force enterprise. Linear cracking, joint seal damage, large patches, shattered slabs, joint spalling, small patches, and alkali silica reactivity are the portland cement concrete airfield pavement distresses causing the largest summative reduction in pavement condition. Longitudinal and transverse cracking, weathering, block cracking, and alligator cracking are the asphalt concrete airfield pavement distresses causing the largest cumulative reduction in pavement condition. Each distress was statistically analyzed to determine if pavement structure or climatic variables are influencing the likelihood of each distress occurring under current policies. The distresses were analyzed independently and the results suggest the United States Air Force’s current design and management policies are not

fully compensating for the impacts of pavement structural and climatic factors.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. v

LIST OF TABLES ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……………………………………………………………………………………….. ix

CHAPTER 1   INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ……………………………………………. 1

1.1 BACKGROUND …………………………………………………………………………………………. 1

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT ……………………………………………………………………………. 21.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE…………………………………………………………………………….. 5

CHAPTER 2  LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………………………………………………………… 6

2.1 PAVEMENT ASSET MANAGEMENT …………………………………………………………. 6

2.2 PAVEMENT MANAGEMENT PROCESS …………………………………………………….. 7

2.3 FACTORS AFFECTING PAVEMENT PERFORMANCE ……………………………….. 26 2.4 RESEARCH ON USAF AIRFIELD PAVEMENT DISTRESSES ……………………… 32 CHAPTER 3  DATA COLLECTION AND ORGANIZATION …………………………………….. 38

CHAPTER 4  RESEARCH METHODOLOGY …………………………………………………………… 44

4.1 ANALYSIS OF AGGREGATED DATA ……………………………………………………….. 444.2 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS ………………………………………………………………………….. 45

CHAPTER 5  RESULTS AND DISCUSSION …………………………………………………………….. 51

5.1 AGGREGATED DATA RESULTS ……………………………………………………………….. 51

5.2 STATISTCAL RESULTS …………………………………………………………………………….. 59

5.2.1 PORTLAND CEMENT CONCRETE PAVEMENT DISTRESSES …………. 615.2.2 ASPHALT CONCRETE PAVEMENT DISTRESSES ……………………………. 82

CHAPTER 6  SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ……………………………………………………… 95

6.1 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDED INVESTIGATIONS FOR PORTLAND

CEMENT CONCRETE PAVEMENTS ………………………………………………………… 96

6.2 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDED INVESTIGATIONS FOR ASPHALT

CONCRETE PAVEMENTS ………………………………………………………………………… 100

6.3 LIMITATIONS ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 103

6.4 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH …………………………………….. 105

REFERENCES ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 107

APPENDIX A DETAILED STATISTICAL RESULTS ………………………………………………… 111

APPENDIX B USAF LOCALIZED MAINTENANCE ACTIONS ………………………………… 182

APPENDIX C ACCROYNM LIST …………………………………………………………………………….. 184

CHAPTER 1  

 

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

1.1 BACKGROUND

The United States Air Force (USAF) is comprised of 11 Major Commands with a total of 183 bases worldwide, valued at more than $297 billion (Allen, 2018). With 1.7 billion square feet of concrete and asphalt airfield pavement in the USAF inventory, the USAF requires millions of dollars a year to maintain and repair airfield pavements (Allen, 2018). As funding constraints become more stringent, Air Force engineers must ensure the proper strategic approach is taken to manage airfield pavements maintenance and repair activities.

The Air Force Civil Engineer Center (AFCEC) is responsible for providing responsive, flexible full-spectrum installation engineering services. The AFCEC’s missions include facility investment planning, design and construction, operations support, real property management, energy support, environmental compliance and restoration, and audit assertions, acquisition and program management (Air Force Civil Engineer Center Fact Sheets, 2013). As part of AFCEC’s mission, the center is charged with ensuring USAF airfields are always in operational condition. AFCEC created the Air Force Pavement Evaluation Program as one method to ensure all airfields are capable of serving the Air Force’s mission (AFI 32-1041, 2017). The Air Force Pavement Evaluation Program “obtains, compiles, and reports pavement strength, condition, and performance data, including data on structural, friction, and anchor capability on all airfields with present or potential missions” (AFI 32-1041, 2017). The data gathered by the Air Force Pavement Evaluation Program is used by engineers to assist in making proper asset management decisions to combat funding constraints and the requirement to keep airfield pavements operational.

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

The USAF has over one hundred installations to maintain and keep operational. At each of these installations there are airfield pavements that are deteriorating and require Maintenance and Repair (M&R) activities to remain operational. With a limited set of resources, the Air Force is required to use asset management principles as a part of the decision-making process on how to prioritize the M&R activities to optimize the life of pavement assets. At the heart of the Air Force’s pavement asset management system is the pavement condition data. The distresses on a pavement section are a large factor in the calculation of a pavement’s condition. A further understanding of pavement distresses will allow the USAF to more efficiently allocate resources and will assist in prolonging pavements operational life. This research hopes to obtain a better understanding of the current USAF airfield pavement distresses to assist the Air Force Civil Engineer Center in optimizing their resources, assisting in potential updates to current design and maintenance strategies, and focus the USAF’s M&R activities on the most predominant distresses.

An asset management system is built around several key system components. Figure 1-1 is a flow chart displaying the system components of a generic asset management system. The final system component is to provide performance feedback to adjust policies to ensure the customer’s goals are met. The purpose of this research is to provide feedback to the USAF to assist in updating or identifying areas of improvement in the current USAF policies. The feedback is provided based on the USAF’s current PAVER data. The red arrow in Figure 1-1 is a visual interpretation of the purpose of this research.

 

Figure 1-1 Generic Asset Management System Components (US Department of Transportation

FHWA, 1999)

Providing feedback to ensure policy and goals align with an assets current performance is sometimes overlooked and is not performed. Often agencies have a difficult time determining whether their current policies are generating the performance desired. There are often additional constraints that affect an agency’s ability to practice proper asset management principles to include: budget constraints, manpower capabilities, lack of resources. This research presents a relatively simple methodology that can be adjusted to different infrastructure assets and can be tailored to agencies other than the USAF.

This research was conducted on 102 USAF installations worldwide. The scope of the study includes both portland cement concrete (PCC) and asphalt concrete (AC) airfield pavement sections. Included in AC airfield pavement sections is asphalt-over-asphalt concrete (AAC) and asphalt-over-portland-cement concrete (APC). Airfield pavement sections are the primary focus of this study to include runways, taxiways, and aprons. The pavement section data is based on the most recent pavement inspection per installation from the USAF’s June 2019 Roll Up PAVER Database.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

The objective of this research is to advise the USAF on areas of improvement to their current pavement management and design policies to meet their desired level of service. This is accomplished by determining which airfield pavement distresses are cumulatively causing the most negative impact on pavement condition in the USAF globally. In addition, the pavement distresses are analyzed to determine which factors that affect pavement performance are assisting in the occurrence of the distresses. The objective will be accomplished by analyzing the following questions:

1. Which pavement distresses are causing the largest cumulative reduction in pavement condition the USAF worldwide?
2. Under current policy, what climatic parameters remain correlated to pavement distress occurrences in the USAF enterprise wide?
3. Under current policy, what pavement structural parameters remain correlated to pavement distress occurrences in the USAF enterprise wide?
4. What improvements can be made to current USAF pavement management and design based on the parameters that remain correlated under current USAF policies?

FACTORS AFFECTING AIRFIELD PAVEMENT PERFORMANCE IN THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE ENTERPRISE WIDE

Sharing is caring!