Overlay for S. Jacinto Airfield Runway

Abstract

The use of conventional, empiric or semi-empiric methods in pavement design, requires the conditions of the situations under study to be similar to those considered in the establishment of the methods.

Design methods based on the strucutral analysis of pavement and subgrade make it possible to overcome some of the limitations of conventional methods and become indispensable in the case of pavements whose constitution is different from the usual ones, that is rigid or flexible.

However, the application of such methods requires an accurate assessment of the deformability and strength characteristics of the layers, which is not always an easy task.

This paper gives an example of application of structural analysis, using finite elements, to an

axi-symmetric model of the pavement of S.  Jacinto airfield runway made in connexion with the design of the overlay for that runway.