The COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant changes to the airline industry. The type and number of aircrafts being operated have changed. The objective of this Major Qualifying Report (MQP) was to evaluate the impact of these changes on the design lives of a runway pavement. Four different scenarios have been analyzed, and the total cost of the designed pavement has been determined. The four scenarios include: pre-COVID-19 air traffic, reduced passenger and increased freight traffic, pre-COVID-19 and expected supersonic traffic, and a combination of reduced passenger, increased freight, and expected supersonic air traffic. Mechanistic-empirical designs were conducted with the help of layered elastic analyses of stresses and strains as well as with transfer functions from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airport pavement design process. Cumulative damage factors (CDF) for each aircraft, and the effect of the different scenarios on them have been presented.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Bowler, Emily E.

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-032621-113405
• 16271

Advisor

• Mallick, Rajib B.

Year

• 2021

Date created

• 2021-03-26

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Civil Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright