Durability Issues of Military Airfield Rigid Pavements due to Combined Influence of Chemical Oil Spills and Repeated Thermal Shocks from Jet Fighter Exhaust

Military airfield rigid pavements are regularly subjected to extreme conditions that are not often experienced by concrete surfaces in ordinary structures. In addition to the expected dynamic loads of jet fighters, transport aircraft or bombers rolling over the surface, these pavements are also exposed to jet fuel, hydraulic fluid, lubricants, extreme heat shocks, and varied lengths of repetitive cyclic heat loading. As a result of the combined effect of extreme conditions, surface scaling of these concrete pavements occurs considerably earlier than normal concrete structures. These scaling can generate large amounts of foreign object debris (FOD) in the form of released aggregate which can blow up the jet engine of planes and thus poses a significant threat to the safety of both personnel and assets. As a result, these pavements undergo frequent expensive repairs. This study is aimed at quantifying the complete environment, and conditions that trigger rapid scaling of military airfield pavements. As a part of the current study, field measurements were conducted, the performance of the countermeasure was evaluated and details of the maintenance practice were analysed. Outcomes of this study helped to identify essential data required to develop experiments for identifying suitable military airfield pavement material.