Improving Wet-Weather Runway Performance Using Trapezoidal Grooving Design

Abstract

Runway operational safety is a key concern of all airport authorities. As more and more new airports are developed and existing airports expanded in developing countries to cope with the rapidly increased air traffic driven by economic growth and declining air travel costs, the responsibility of the airport operators and aviation authorities to ensure safety in aircraft operations has become increasingly challenging. One important means of enhancing runway operational safety is pavement grooving which has been widely accepted as an effective measure that reduces aircraft hydroplaning risk and the loss of pavement skid resistance during wet weather. In 2012, a new trapezoidal grooving design was tested by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and was found to offer several benefits over the conventional square grooving design, including greater resistance to rubber contamination, better integrity, and improved longevity. This paper evaluates the findings of a recent analytical study and a field trial conducted in Singapore to provide further insights into the possible operational safety and maintenance benefits of using trapezoidal-shaped grooves in runway pavements. The results of the evaluation suggest that trapezoidal grooving would be beneficial to airports of developing countries to achieve good operational safety with reasonable runway pavement maintenance efforts.