New Jersey
National Airport Pavement Test Facility
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) operates a state-of-the-art, full-scale pavement test facility dedicated solely to airport pavement research. Located at the William J. Hughes Technical Center near Atlantic City, New Jersey, the National Airport Pavement Test Facility (NAPTF) provides high quality, accelerated test data from rigid and flexible pavements subjected to simulated aircraft traffic. Construction of the facility was completed in April 1999 with the establishment of the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between the FAA and Boeing, which resulted in the construction of NAPTF.
This facility allows for the testing of rigid and flexible pavements by simulated undercarriages of aircraft weighing up to 591 000 kg. The 5340 kN Pavement Testing Machine spans two sets of railway tracks that are 23.2 m apart. The vehicle has adjustable dual-wheel loading modules. The load is applied to the wheels on the modules through a hydraulic system.
The design of the NAPTF was primarily based on the newly developed pavement design procedures for the latest generation of large civil transport aircraft. Of particular concern was the interaction between the loads of the multiple wheels and the close spacing of wheel bogies (trucks) that will be used on these aircraft. This has a direct impact on the subgrade in flexible pavements.