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Pavements 2026

Accelerated Pavement Testing & Instrumentation

POSTER RECEPTION (View list of posters here)

Evaluation of Airfield Matting Subjected to P-8 Poseidon Traffic

Tuesday, June 30, 2026

4:45 PM - 6:00 PM East Coast USA Time

Primary Author(s)

Benjamin A. Rutherford, n/a

Research Mechanical Engineer
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center
Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States

Presenter(s)

Benjamin A. Rutherford, n/a

Research Mechanical Engineer
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center
Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States

Co-Author(s)

Timothy W. Rushing, P.E.

Senior Researcher
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center
Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States
Abby Cisko, Ph.D.

Research Mechanical Engineer
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center
Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States

Submitter(s)

Benjamin A. Rutherford, n/a

Research Mechanical Engineer
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center
Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States

Abstract: The Navy’s P-8 Poseidon aircraft has been shown to cause significant damage to airfield pavements. This damage occurred earlier than anticipated based on preliminary simulation in PCASE. Therefore, the U.S. Navy sponsored a research program to conduct full-scale accelerated pavement tests on asphalt, Portland cement concrete, and airfield matting (AM2) airfields to develop or update performance models for P-8 aircraft loadings. This work describes the evaluation of an AM2 matting surfaced test section. The test foundation was constructed from Vicksburg Buckshot Clay and had a California Bearing Ratio (CBR) of 6%. A Heavy Vehicle Simulator (HVS-A) was used to apply P-8 traffic. The results of this experiment showed that the AM2 matting could carry approximately 500 fully loaded P-8 passes before failure by exceeding aircraft roughness limits caused by rutting of the foundation soil. The roughness limits for a P-8 aircraft were chosen to be on the same order as a C-130 aircraft, as the P-8 airframe was more like the C-130 than fighter traffic represented by the F-15E or large transport aircraft represented by the C-17. The results of this experiment will be used to validate or calibrate AM2 design and evaluation criteria that is currently implemented in the PCASE software program.

Learning Objectives:

Attendees can expect to learn the following from this session:

Define and identify airfield matting
understand the performance of airfield matting as a pavement surface for P-8 traffic
Describe the damage evolution observed when airfield matting is subjected to P-8 traffic over a weak subgrade