Alternative aircraft loading index for pavement structural analysis

The most common practical way to simplify the structural analysis of airfie ld pavements is the use of equivalent single wheel load models instead of t he actual gear of the aircrafts. As the accuracy and reliability of these m odels strongly affects the design and evaluation of airfield pavements, the re is considerable need to investigate both system approaches. The first on e, which uses a constant value for the pressure while the radius is variabl e, is currently under use by the aircraft classification number-pavement cl assification number method of the International Civil Aviation Organization , but despite this fact it proved to be inadequate to express the aircraft loading in many situations. On the contrary, according to this study, the s econd model, which has a constant value for the radius while the pressure v aries, is more reliable, and it can be an interesting alternative. Thus, ba sed on this model, an aircraft loading index is introduced, which aims to b e a simple and reliable factor for expressing the severity of the loading o f the aircrafts and a utility for several matters related to the airfield p avement applications.