Experimental and numerical analysis of the behavior of an airport pavement reinforced by geogrids

Airport flexible pavements are subjected during their use to continuous stresses from mainly dynamic repeated aircraft loads, environmental climatic conditions and hence the risk of fatigue and deterioration. Geosynthetics, such as geogrids, improve the performance of pavements and increase its bearing capacity and its life expectancy as the reduce cracking and damage of different layers. Few experimental and numerical studies are available in the literature to predict the behavior of pavement over time. In this paper, a case study for the application of geogrids in an airport runway is presented. An evaluation of the static behavior by measurement of deformations and stresses in different sections of runways are presented as well as non-destructive testing by heavy weight deflectometer (HWD), before and after geogrids reinforcement. A finite element numerical study on the behavior of these geogrids reinforced runway is also presented and compared to the experimental results.