Numerical study of airplane wheels characteristics on the runway rigid pavement failure

Abstract

In most airports, the maintenance of pavements involves a significant part of costs. Hence, before designing the pavement, it is essential to know about the effect of every kind of airplane on the failure caused to the pavement, the management system and the maintenance of airport. This article, based on the three-dimensional (3-D) modeling done before and through using the finite element software called ABAQUS. This numerical study is done to determine the role of different parameters of passenger, commercial, and military airplanes’ main gears which cause the most failure on the runway rigid pavement. The results show that, among different kinds of airplanes which transit and pass in worldwide airports, A380-800F, B777-300ER, C17A and dual wheel

in below of the belly of MD11ER airplane (MD11ER Belly) cause the most failure on the runway rigid pavements. Additionally, by increasing the weight of any airplane, increasing the number of wheels in form of Tandem is considered the most important factor in reducing failure caused to the pavement.