REVISED BETA CRITERIA FOR THE CBR AIRFIELD PAVEMENT DESIGN METHOD

Background: In recent years, civil aviation has experienced intense growth, regional or peripheral airports have been built or expanded to operate new routes. In the Portuguese case is no different, the two main airports (Porto and Lisbon) are close to the limit. Furthermore, there is a certain degree of isolation in the Central and Interior regions, being an added value the construction of an Airport to serve these areas. Consequently, this study aims to address the best practices for the design of airport pavements and then apply this knowledge in a case study constituted by the Viseu Aerodrome. Methods: This dissertation is based on a case study. Therefore, it uses qualitative data in order to explain and explore the design of airport pavements. The text is divided into two parts, the first moment is performed a literature review to obtain a state-of-the-art for the design of airport pavements. Afterward, apply this knowledge to the case study, this approach aims to apply best practices to Portugal. Results: Three scenarios are presented, maintaining current operation with aircraft up to 6.4 tons and autonomy of 1000 km, operating aircrafts up to 23 tons and 2500 km range, and aircraft up to 82.2 tons and 6000 km range. In the first scenario, the existing pavement must be reinforced with an overlay that can vary between 5.5 and 7.0 cm. In the second, a new 1800 m runway was designed, with 15.0 cm of the granular layer, 13.0 cm of bituminous layer, and 10.5 cm wear layer. In the final scenario, the new runway should be 2500 m. This pavement should have a structure with 29.5 cm of the granular layer, 13.0 cm of bituminous layer and 10.5 cm of the wear layer. It was also foreseen the possibility of construction of this runway in two stages, the first being precisely the same as the previous project (1800 m in length and a total thickness of 38.5 cm), then the runway should reach the final characteristic, with 2500 m and structural capacity for aircraft up to 82.2 tons. This was possible with a 9.5 cm overlay on the 38.5 cm structure (previous structure). Conclusions: The pursuit of the sustainability of the airport infrastructure operation is an engineering challenge. In this sense, the runway pavements play an essential role. This dissertation offers a simple and straightforward approach to best practices for airport pavement design. Subsequently, this knowledge of the best airport paving engineering was applied in a case study constituted by the Viseu Aerodrome