Stressing state analysis of concrete airport pavement by modeling experimental strain data

This paper presents a stressing state modeling analysis of pavement strain data from phase I of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) construction cycle 8 (CC8). The objective is to reveal the operating characteristics and accurately determine the characteristic points of the stressing states of concrete pavements in the south and north halves under normal and overload. This study proposes a correlation stressing state modeling method to model the pavement strain data by converting the test strain data into basic, composite, and reconstructed state variables and establishing correlation characteristic pair (mode-characteristic parameter) to describe the interconnection between the measurement points. Then, the slope increment criterion is applied to the characteristic parameter curves to screen the characteristic points of concrete airport pavements and verify their mutation characteristics in the vicinity of the correlation mode and characteristic parameter curves. The characteristic points P and F were defined as the elastoplastic branching (EPB) points and the failure starting points, where the characteristic points of the overall stressing state in the north and south halves of the concrete airport pavement were (jP =55, jF=98) and (jP =38, jF=54), respectively. Furthermore, this study suggests that the characteristic points P and F are used as references for pavement design.