Airfield pavement resiliency assessment against extreme dynamic events by explicit axisymmetric finite element models

Infrastructure resiliency has become an essential element in ensuring community recovery after unexpected events. In airfield pavement, resilience can be achieved through an improved design approach by understanding the fundamental elements of damage mitigation and thus allowing rapid recovery. The objective of this study was to numerically evaluate easy-to-implement alternatives for mitigating damage in rigid airfield layered pavement systems when subjected to dynamic events such as blasts or high-velocity impacts. This was accomplished by developing an efficient axisymmetric explicit finite element model, which served as an analytical tool for the study. The model was developed in LS-DYNA and the methodology consisted of a comprehensive parametric analysis. The results showed that the concrete pavement layer parameters—mass density and compressive strength—have the most significant effect on the damage to the pavement when subjected to extreme dynamic events. The material parameters for the pavement layers were optimized to minimize the damage, caused by dynamic loads, achieving more than 70% damage mitigation. Furthermore, adding a granular base layer to the rigid airfield pavement design reduces the concrete pavement layer damage by almost 40%. An asphalt concrete overlay reduces the concrete pavement layer damage by about 55%. Moreover, adding an asphalt concrete overlay to the optimized rigid airfield pavement design reduces the damage by 10%. In contrast, adding a granular base layer to the optimized rigid airfield pavement design is ineffective.