Backcalculation of airport pavement moduli and thickness using the Lévy Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm

•The ACORLACORL algorithm is proposed for backcalculation of pavement moduli from FWD data.•Pavement is assumed as an elastic homogeneous and isotropic multi-layered media.•The performance of ACORLACORL are illustrated by carrying out both hypothetical and field problems.•A robust search ability to overcome the problem of local minima is proved.•Furthermore, the proposed algorithm is also able to predict layer thicknesses.

Interpretation of NDT data is crucial in any Airport Pavement Management System (APMS), in order to implement strategies to maintain airport pavements since they allow to estimate their remaining life and related maintenance needs and activities. In this paper, the Ant Colony Optimization algorithm was used for backcalculation of pavement moduli from surface deflection data. The algorithm’s performances are illustrated and improvement in prediction quality is demonstrated both in terms of goodness of fitness and computational effort. Moreover, it is proved that the proposed algorithm is also able to predict layer thicknesses, taking into account their variation too.