CE-363

Lecture 11: Airport Capacity, Hangars

and Airport Pavement Design
Dr. Ankit Gupta, Assistant Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
National Institute of Technology Hamirpur
Lecture Outline
Airport Capacity
Hangars
Airport Capacity
The number of aircraft movements which an airport
can process within a specified period of time, with
an average delay to the departing aircraft within the
acceptable time limit.
Practical operating capacity is less than the ideal
capacity, depending upon the amount of acceptable
delay to the departing aircraft.
Airbourne Instruments Laboratory USA, has fixed an
average delay period of 6 minutes.
Airport Capacity
The factors affecting the airport operating
capacity:
Runway configurations and the connected taxiways.
Aircraft characteristics and their arrival to departure
ratio.
Weather conditions.
Terrain and man-made obstructions.
Landing apron space.
Navigational aids.
Aircraft processing techniques.
Runway Capacity
Ability of a runway system to accommodate aircraft
landings and take-off. It is expressed in operations
per hour or operations per year.
Ultimate or Saturation capacity of a runway is the
maximum number of aircraft that can be handled
during a given period under conditions of continuous
demand.
Factors affecting runway capacity are:
Air traffic control
Characteristics of demand
Environmental factors
Layout and design of the runway system
Hangars
These are enclosures for housing and repairing of
aircrafts
Steel framework with galvanized iron sheets are
provided
Space is provided for machine shops and stores for
spare parts
Size depends upon size of aircraft and turning
radius
Number of hangars depends upon peak hour
intensity and demand from airlines
Adequate lighting should be provided inside the
hangar
Hangars
Location should be as near to the loading aprons
and terminal building as practicable
Facilities like water supply, telephone, drainage etc.
should be available
Favourable topography with good natural drainage
helps in keeping it dry
It should not be along the direction of frequent wind
storm
Space should also be allocated for accommodating
personal, vehicles etc.
Space requirement for future expansion.
Hangars
Types of storage and service hangars
Nose hangar
Provided for large sized aircraft
Comfortable working conditions
Economical
T-hangar
Provided for small sized aircraft
Encloses the aircraft fully
Hangars
Airport Pavement Design
Flexible: Deformations in layers, have some flexural
strength
Rigid: No deformations, act as a beam. Negligible
flexural strength.
Types of Design:
Empirical: CBR, Plate bearing, etc.
Semi-empirical: Burmisters approach, etc.
Analytical: Westergaard analysis, etc.
Airport Pavement Design
Various design factors are:
Design wheel load
Strength characteristics of materials used in layers
Subgrade supporting capacity
Other factors like repetition of wheel loads, fatigue
resistance, impact, volume change due to frost-
thawing, etc.
Airport Pavement Design
Design methods for flexible pavements:
CBR Method
McLeod Method
Burmister Method
Analytical Method
Computer Aided Design (CAD) applications
Design methods for rigid pavements:
Westergaards Method
LCN/PCN/ACN system of pavement design
Airport Pavement Design
Load Classification Number: A system of
classification of the supporting capacity of
pavements, indicating their ability to support loads
without cracking or becoming permanently
deformed. The number is obtained by making plate-
bearing tests on the pavement. Likewise, the
equivalent single-wheel load of any aircraft can be
expressed in terms of LCN.
LCN is dependent on the gear geometry, tire
pressure, and the composition and thickness of the
pavement.
Thus, if the LCN of an airfield pavement is larger
than the LCN of the aircraft, the aircraft can safely
use the pavement.
Airport Pavement Design
Aircraft Classification Number: It is a number
expressing the relative effect of an aircraft on the
runway pavement for a specified standard subgrade
category (ICAO).
Pavement Classification Number: It is an ICAO
standard used in combination with the ACN to
indicate the strength of a runway, taxiway or apron.
This helps to ensure that the apron is not subjected
to excessive wear and tear, thus prolonging its life.