Fatigue Models for Airfield Concrete Pavement: Literature Review and Discussion

The fatigue model plays an important role in the mechanistic–empirical design procedure of airfield pavement. As for cement concrete pavement, the fatigue model represents the relationship between the stress and the number of load repetitions. To further understand the fatigue model, a literature review was performed in this paper along with the discussion. In this paper, the developed fatigue models available now were classified as the full-scale testing-based fatigue model and the concrete beam testing-based fatigue model, according to the data source. Then, the regression analysis process and stress calculation method of each fatigue model were summarized. Besides, the fatigue model proposed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was compared with the fatigue model of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). The design thicknesses using the two models were obtained based on the finite element analysis. The results show that the designed slab using the fatigue model of FAA is thicker than that of CAAC, meaning that the fatigue model of FAA is comparatively conservative. Moreover, it can be concluded that the differences in the slab thickness become more significant with the increase in the wheel load and the foundation strength. Finally, the recommendation was proposed to refine the fatigue model in the future study from three aspects: data source, stress calculation method, and regression analysis process.