Evaluation of Faun MLC-70 Trackway Mat System Under Simulated F-15 Traffic
Abstract
Faun Trackway s airfield matting products have been encountered by US military personnel during joint operations with coalition partners. The MLC-70 Trackway matting system was previously evaluated under F-15E and C-17 simulated traffic over a subgrade with a California Bearing Ratio (CBR) of 6 and was found to be inadequate. However, substantially stronger materials are often found around existing airfields. Therefore, the US Air Force Civil Engineer Center tasked the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center to evaluate the MLC-70 system under simulated F-15E aircraft traffic to determine the number of allowable aircraft passes the system can sustain over stronger soils. Results of traffic tests presented herein include individual mat panel properties, pretest and posttest subgrade soil conditions, subgrade earth pressure cell instrumentation results, physical damage descriptions of the mat system, and system passes-to-failure under simulated F-15E aircraft traffic for specified failure criteria. Results from these evaluations showed that the MLC-70 Trackway system was capable of supporting more than 1,000 F-15E operations when placed over a subgrade with a CBR of 25 or greater. Operations over weaker soils should be limited to emergency or expedient operations for heavy fighter aircraft.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA601345
Entities
People
- Lyan Garcia
- Quint S. Mason
- Timothy W. Rushing
Organizations
- Engineer Research and Development Center