Airport pavements are one of the most essential parts of airport infrastructure. According to specific traffic patterns, closures of the airport pavements are more or less unacceptable due to major economical and logistic impacts. This is why construction of a durable pavement is so important. To provide the anticipated design life of the pavement, we have to design, construct and maintain pavements with precaution. When the design life of the airport pavement is exhausted or concrete pavement is damaged and it no longer provides its function, civil engineers are forced to use the methods of rapid construction. Rapid construction requires carefully selected materials, construction technology and organization of accompanying procedures.
The first part of the master thesis represents general overview of concrete pavements and design of airport pavements, focused on aprons, according to FAA (Federal Aviation Administration).
In the second part, some examples of rapid and durable construction are presented. One of modern approaches to rapid construction is the usage of high early strength concrete. Early strengths can be achieved by using proper cementitious materials or admixtures that accelerate hardening of concrete. Besides fulfilling high early strength requirements, concrete has to be resistant to aggressive environmental impacts, like temperature changes, freezing and thawing in the presence of melting salts and also leakage of kerosene and de-icing chemicals. Therefore, two different concrete mixtures were developed to fulfil the requirements of surface course concrete in the concrete slab, each one for different concrete placement method. Fresh concrete mixture characteristics were determined by slump test and air content test. Hardened concrete was tested for compression and bending strength. To prove freezing and thawing resistance of the concrete specimens, final air content was defined by linear microscopic analysis.
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