Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 24

Using geosynthetics in
flexible airport pavements
By Benjamin Mahaffay, Jeremy Robinson, Jeffrey Gagnon and Gregory Norwood

I

Benjamin Mahaffay, P.E., PMP, is research
civil engineer with the Federal Aviation
Administration's Airport Pavement
R&D Section at the William J. Hughes
Technical Center.
Jeremy Robinson, P.E., is research civil
engineer at the U.S. Army Research
and Development Center.
Jeffrey Gagnon, P.E., is pavement
R&D manager at the Federal Aviation
Administration's Airport Pavement
R&D Section at the William J. Hughes
Technical Center.
Gregory Norwood, P.E., is research civil
engineer at the U.S. Army Research
and Development Center.
All photographs, illustrations and tables courtesy of the authors.

24

Geosynthetics | June July 2019

n recent years, there has been an increasing interest to improve pavement structures through
mechanical stabilization by incorporating geosynthetic products within the structure. The
Geosynthetic Materials Association (GMA) has identified eight categories of commercially
available geosynthetics: geotextiles, geogrids, geonets, geocomposites, geosynthetic interlayers,
geocells, erosion control materials and geomembranes. These materials serve multiple functions, including separation, filtration, drainage, reinforcement/stabilization, cushion/protection,
confinement, stress relief, erosion protection and moisture barrier (Berg et al. 2000). Geotextiles
and geogrids are the two most commonly used categories of geosynthetics for the purpose of
reinforcement/stabilization. There have been numerous studies supporting the benefits of reinforcement/stabilization with the use of geotextiles and geogrids within a pavement structure
attributed to the three mechanisms of (1) lateral restraint, (2) increased bearing capacity and (3)
tensile membrane support. These primarily benefit the pavement structure by extending pavement life, reducing structural thickness or increasing rutting resistance. Studies document the
benefits of how geosynthetic products can be an efficient way to improve the strength properties
of materials used in pavement structures (Abu-Farsakh et al. 2016, Holtz et al. 1998, Perkins et al.
2005, Zornberg 2011). However, the majority of the studies focus on thinner highway pavement
structures simulating vehicular traffic loading. Therefore, the U.S. Army Engineer and Research
Development Center (ERDC), in collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA),
performed a laboratory cyclic plate load test study to collect data and verify the benefit of geosynthetic products on thicker airport pavement under simulated aircraft loading (Figure 1).
The FAA recently issued draft Advisory Circular 150/5370-10H, Standards for Specifying
Construction of Airports, which includes language regarding geotextiles and geogrids. In a parallel
effort, ERDC is conducting medium-scale laboratory research to quantify the potential structural
and performance improvements that geosynthetics products provide within an airport pavement
structure. The results of this study will provide much-needed data examining geosynthetics in
airport pavement structures under aircraft loading. A proposed follow-up study will further
examine geosynthetic performance under full-scale accelerated pavement testing at the National
Airport Pavement Test Facility (NAPTF) during Construction Cycle 09 (CC9) planned for 2019.

Objective and test layout
The technical objective of the cyclic plate load experiment was to perform cyclic plate load
testing to compare performance of geosynthetic-reinforced airport pavement structures to
non-geosynthetic-reinforced airport pavement structures under simulated aircraft loading.



Geosynthetics June/July 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Geosynthetics June/July 2019

Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - Cover1
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - Cover2
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 1
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 2
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 3
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 4
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 5
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 6
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 7
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 8
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 9
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 10
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 11
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 12
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 13
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 14
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 15
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 16
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 17
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 18
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 19
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 20
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 21
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 22
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 23
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 24
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 25
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 26
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 27
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 28
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 29
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 30
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 31
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 32
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 33
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 34
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 35
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 36
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 37
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 38
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 39
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 40
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 41
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 42
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 43
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 44
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 45
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 46
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 47
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 48
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 49
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 50
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 51
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 52
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 53
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 54
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 55
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - 56
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - Cover3
Geosynthetics June/July 2019 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/ata/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-december-2024-january-2025
https://www.nxtbook.com/ata/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-october-november-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/ata/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-july-august-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/ata/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-case-studies-guide-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/ata/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-april-may-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/ata/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-february-march-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/ata/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-december-2023-january-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/ata/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-october-november-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/ata/geosynthetics/geoysynthetics-august-september-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/ata/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-june-july-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/ata/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-april-may-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/ata/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-february-march-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/ata/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-december-2022-january-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/ata/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-october-november-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-august-september-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-june-july-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-april-may-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-february-march-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-december-2021-january-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-october-november-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-august-september-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-june-july-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-april-may-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/geosynthetics-february-march-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/1220GS
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/1020GS
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/0820GS
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/0620GS
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/0420GS
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/0220GS
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/1219GS
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/1019GS
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/0819GS
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/0619GS
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/0419GS
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/0219GS
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/1218GS
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/1018GS
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/0818GS
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/0618GS
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/0418GS
https://www.nxtbook.com/ifai/geosynthetics/0218GS
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com