Trr No. 1260 Pavement Design, Management And Performance., pp. 192-215
Nondestructive testing (NDT) has provided a rapid means of assesing the structural capacity of airfield pavements during periods of increasing traffic and loadings. A wide range of test equipment is available for airport owners to select from. Various commercially available NDT equipments were applied to the structural evaluation of airfield pavements using a layered elastic method of analysis. Seven different NDT devices were evaluated. Three of the devices imparted vibratory loads to the pavement, whereas four devices applied impulse or falling-weight loads. NDT data were collected on 12 pavements that included thick and thin flexible, rigid, and composite structures over fine- and coarse-grain subgrades. Backcalculated subgrade moduli from the devices were compared. These data were used for estimating the allowable load and overlay requirements for a selected aircraft to demonstrate the variability that could be obtained using different devices.