Correlation of Airfield Surface Distress and Foreign Object Debris Quantity

Abstract: Pavement management systems need a measure of pavement distress that relates to real-world serviceability. Previous research has shown that the presence or absence of Foreign Object Debris is a key component of serviceability. For a measure of pavement distress to be effective, the measure must adequately represent the likelihood that an aircraft will experience Foreign Object Damage from odogenic (pavement-caused) debris. (The other two key components of serviceability, skid resistance and smoothness, are not addressed in this study.) Estimating the probability of Foreign Object Damage to an aircraft is a complex problem involving the characteristics of the debris and debris field, mechanisms for lofting debris into an aircraft, and the susceptibility to damage of the aircraft parts impacted by debris. Few studies address the first part of this problem: predicting the quantity of debris present on a pavement. This study used an observational data set to correlate the mass of debris removed from a pavement to various measures of pavement distress used by the PAVER pavement management system. Measures investigated include: pavement age, Pavement Condition Index, FOD Index, distress density, distress area, and distress area excluding joint seal damage. The strongest and only statistically significant correlation was found to be to the distress area excluding joint seal damage.