Analysis of Schemes for Assessing Airport Asphalt Pavement Compaction Acceptance

Abstract: A standardised specification published for airport asphalt construction in Australia was published in 2018. However, this specification has not been adopted by all airports and design consultants, resulting in many diverse specifications being used. Some specifications use a relative density to a characteristic value as the scheme to analyse field compaction, whereas others refer to lot averages and/or limits on individual air void contents. Further there is no consensus on the number of samples that should be taken per Lot of asphalt. In this research, Monte Carlo simulations were used to simulate conforming and several non-conforming scenarios, the various specified compaction schemes and different number of tests per lot were assessed against the risk that is inferred on the contractor and the client. The optimum scheme balances risk to the contractor (rejecting a conforming lot) and client (accepting a non-conforming lot), whilst considering practical limits on the number of samples that can be taken in a lot. Whilst all schemes had benefits and drawbacks, there was no scheme that stood out as the ideal solution for lot sizes within the practical range of 6 to 10 test samples. It is hoped that the outcomes from the research will inform airport asphalt specification revisions in the future.