UNPAVED RUNWAYS SURFACE: WHAT WE KNOW AND WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW¶
Abstract¶
After the authors’ experience in the design, execution, operation of the EMBRAER KC 390 test track in Gavião Peixoto in critical situations and countless moments of reflection upon the project, the need of discussing this topic in a broader way arose. When we talk about runways as a tool for social integration, the first question we hear is: why not pave? This is very difficult to answer, as it involves several aspects such as scarcity of financial resources in most countries, which according to the World Bank (2022), 10% of the planetary population lives below the poverty line (less than US$ 1,90/day). A track has the role of meeting the need of social integration with the poorest communities, providing medical and social assistance; it also involves the security of countries, where the armed forces must have access to the most remote places and the rescue caused by cataclysms in any way anyway. It is not to be thought that an airfield is intended only to meet the demands of business or tourism. Therefore, the Planet needs and will always need many unpaved airfields. This paper presents some studies and technical standards available in the literature on this technology and presents the existing unanswered questions necessary to meet the engineering project requirements, which needs to guarantee useful lifetime, operation risk and a maintenance matrix containing the number of operations and technologies available on site. Along with these uncertainties, what possible researches to be carried out in a scenario of financial scarcity are also discussed. The divergences and uncertainties arise from the lack of knowledge of both the geotechnics of tropical soils from the international society and the support capacity and plastic deformation of the soil and even loose coarse aggregates, passing through the longitudinal and transversal irregularities
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Citing¶
@inproceedings{SIT148,
author = {JOÃO VIRGILIO MERIGHI; RITA MOURA FORTES},
title = {UNPAVED RUNWAYS SURFACE: WHAT WE KNOW AND WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2022 Air Transportation Symposium},
series = {SITRAER 2022},
year = {2022},
pages = {128-134},
publisher = {SBTA - Brazilian Air Transportation Research Society},
address = {São José dos Campos, Brazil,}
}
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