Research

Airfield Engineering Asset Maintenance A sector report

Airport engineers, operational and maintenance heads are working under extremely challenging operational scheduling and cost constraints. In addition new, larger aircraft types and higher traffic levels require these personnel to plan significant extension and refurbishment of their airfield assets to ensure their airport is not left behind. The need for runway expansions, upgrades and refurbishments is increasing the demands made on your airfield maintenance plans and strategies. At the same time, the windows of opportunity for carrying out this work whilst maintaining operational efficiency are becoming more limited. This research paper will touch on the issues, challenges and probable outcomes we may begin to see on the Airfield Engineering landscape. Issues As mentioned, increasing requirements for runway expansions, upgrades and refurbishments are raising the pressures faced by those in charge of planning and implementing airfield maintenance plans and strategies. At the same time, the windows of opportunity for carrying out these works whilst maintaining operational efficiency are becoming more limited. Another issue which will be affecting airfield pavements is the increase in aircraft tire pressures of future aircraft and those aircraft entering into the commercial fleets from Boeing and Airbus, in particular the B787 and A-350 where tire pressure are increasing from 218 psi to over 250 psi. The industry is unsure how these new aircraft will affect the life of the current pavements in place at numerous airfields and if current mix designs for asphalt pavement are sufficient for these new aircraft. The other issue is that needs to clarified is whether these new aircrafts are affecting the ICAO load rating system of Pavement Classification Number (PCN) and whether this classification system should be reviewed and revised to meet the future needs of the aircraft manufactures and airport authorities (owners). Repair costs Cost, for both repair and expansion projects, coupled with critical timing are an overriding concern for airfield engineers. Another key issue concern is cracks and damages to the runway or tarmac as a result of the wear and tear in many international airports. Airfield engineers need to understand how to prevent cracking and how to rehabilitate old pavements. This is particularly an issue simply because the window for airport pavement maintenance is small and there is less downtime for maintenance across all airfields. Consequently there is a need for more information on computerized scheduling tools and airport management systems.

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Training & Human Resources There is a need to close the gap on issues that airfield engineers face and the gap in understanding between airport design consultants and contractors. While airport design consultants tend to be keener to introduce new technology as well as tarmac and bitumen mixes the contractors are more reticent and like to stick with the processes and platforms that they know. This leads to issues such as training staff to roll out this new equipment which will have significant costs and investment. There is also a need to overcome cultural challenges, especially among crews and about whays of worksing and changes to the way things have always been done. There is also an inherent need to change the attitudes of the workforce and ensure that they buy in to new processes to improve efficiency and technical performance, unfortunately this will take time and a lot of training and time is money. Financing Financing for the airport industry is a massive issue for the entire sector. Very few can afford to do the work at the moment. Available funding has been cut dramatically and all stakeholders have to find cheaper ways of doing things. For certain airport this has meant increased use of spray polymer treatments to extend runway lifespans and speed up maintenance cycles. Maintenance has to go like clockwork and it is harder to do with sprays although there are more complex and newer materials, people arent used to or trained to working with these materials yet. One of the biggest challenges airfield expansion and renewal projects pose as of today is directly related to the question of how to assure stakeholders that capital expenditures are prudently managed, designed in a way so as to optimize capacity utilization and developed sequentially in order to keep options open until the last minute, thus allowing the airfield manager to optimise the response to expansions/contractions in the market while using the ROI as major decision criteria.

Possible solutions The use of fully automated data collection systems to inspect airfield pavements quickly and efficiently may be incorporated in the process, by possibly being able to inspect 100% of the pavements each year rather than only 20% to 30% per year. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and/or neural networks in the analysis of this data so the subjectivitiy of individuals can be removed from the pavement condition inspection. Also to combat harsh weather conditions, such local rain intensity, improvements in drainage may be incorporated to by grooving of runways. This will reduce the potential for hydroplaning and also reduce the potential for ice formation on runways, allowing it to drain before it freezes. Constructed and organized the proper way this might by something that could lead to performance credit for the operators. For the snow and ice contaminated situation, use of anti-icing runway chemicals to keep the runways in a no worse than wet condition should be utilised. If this is not achievable there will be a need for trained personnel and proper dimensioned snow removal equipment. For trained personnel, the focus must be,

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most important, on their ability to identify and report the runway state in a way meaningful for the pilot. This may take some time to come up with but presently there is no agreed global reporting format. When attempting to maximise safety and efficiency for airports, one of the key issues often faced is the need to identify, map and understand all stakeholders interests, and, if possible, to accommodate those interests in the overall planning and execution processes. Although nowadays the use of technology enables airport operators to increase throughput, whilst maintaining safety and security standards at the levels required by the supervision authorities, it is also true that in order to maintain those safety and security levels, some restrictions may have to be implemented that hinder lean and transparent business processes with subsequent impacts in convenience and speed. The project manager of large airfield expansion and renewal projects has the obligation to balance the requirements imposed by safety and security authorities with the requirements of its customers, be they the airlines, retail concessionaires or passengers all of them expecting to find an hassle free environment when using an airport. Opportunities & Innovations In airfield engineering these days there is less and less a place for breakthrough developments. Instead major advances are being achieved through incremental optimisations and fine tuning. At the same time, due to dynamics of the marketplace, airports will have to continuously improve their cost bases whilst offering increasing value to passengers and airlines. The generalisation of geographical information systems (GIS) will be one major opportunity in airfield engineering and asset management that will eventually be fully utilised. The same holds true where integrated airfield pavement management systems are concerned. The condition assessment of existing pavements (including structural evaluation and runway friction monitoring and visual surface condition assessment) because of its relevance in terms of either capital expenditure or operating costs, will continue to be of major importance (in this context, the use of new both intrusive and non-destructive testing techniques will open further opportunities for development). Also the development of automatic runway foreign object debris (FOD) detection systems will certainly see major developments in the near future as runway utilisation go up and up. There is great potential in addressing the quality of the runways and the associated RESAs. Given the international aspect of aviation, a cross state database containing the drainage surface characteristics of Runways and Associated Safety Areas (RESA) would be beneficial to regulators, airport owners, aircraft operators and airfield engineers. Such a database would be an important tool for risk analysis studies on the need for improved drainage and safety areas to be part of the mitigating effort of bringing non compliant runways and safety areas more or in full compliance with international standards and recommendations. It is believed that the installation of Engineered Materials Arresting Systems (EMAS) will be a central tool for achieving this and will be found to be economically beneficial for many of todays non-compliant airports.

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Airfield Engineering Asia Airfield Engineering and Asset Maintenance 2011 is an evolution of our globally successful series of strategic airport pavement design and management conferences. This year the conference is growing to explore other key engineering and maintenance challenges faced by airfield operators, including issues faced when designing and managing safety systems, lighting, painting, drainage and hangars. Two conference streams will give you essential updates on: Compiled by Bryan Camoens & Ed Haines for Airfield Engineering and Asset Maintenance 2011. For more information on registering for the conference please contact: Bryan Camoens IQPC Worldwide Tel: +65 6722 9406 Email: bryan.camoens@iqpc.com.sg