Title:
Theory Versus Reality in Concrete Airfield Pavement Engineering
Author(s):
Rollings
Publication:
Web Session
Volume:
ws_2021_Rollings_AirfieldPvmnt.pdf
Issue:
Appears on pages(s):
Keywords:
DOI:
Date:
4/1/2021
Abstract:
Engineers provide concrete design and evaluation calculations of exquisite detail using the finest analytical tools, modern pavement engineering materials are carefully evaluated in the laboratory and the field with exquisite precision, the pavement itself is placed with marvelous equipment using advanced technology ranging from lasers to GPS, and the engineer specifies the final concrete pavement in loving detail in specifications that may run a hundred pages or more. Alas, despite all of these valiant efforts, we continue to be embarrassed by failures in the field; almost all of which are due to simple, human errors unrelated to technology. Real concrete airfield pavements are composed of complex materials which, or most of which, originated with Mother Nature whose fickleness is well known, and they support variable moving loads while exposed to ever-changing environmental conditions that combine to bedevil our attempts to analyze, produce, and place the final concrete airfield pavement.