Sensitivity Analysis of FAARFIELD Rigid Airport Pavement Thickness Determination

FAARFIELD is a common mechanistic-empirical software that uses a combination of layered elastic and finite element methods for the determination of rigid aircraft pavement thickness. The primary input parameters are the aircraft type, mass and departures, concrete flexural strength, sub-base material and thickness, as well as subgrade support characteristic. A parametric sensitivity analysis, including three common commercial aircraft and four subgrade conditions, determined that concrete thickness was most sensitive to concrete strength and aircraft mass. The concrete thickness was least sensitive to the sub-base material and thickness and was moderately sensitive to the subgrade condition and aircraft departures. These relative sensitivities were consistent when the results were analysed based on average percentage change in concrete thickness, the average slope of lines of best fit for normalised parameter values and the coefficients of a numeric linear regression for concrete thickness. It is recommended that designers focus their attention on accurately estimating realistic concrete strength and aircraft mass values, as these parameters had the greatest influence on concrete thickness.