ABSTRACT
Voids can develop for variety of reasons under highway and airfield pavements; improper subsurface drainage is the predominant reason. Development of voids under asphalt pavements is usually followed by settlement of the pavement and does not go unnoticed for long. Under rigid pavements, however, the concrete slabs bridge the voids without noticeable settlement in the early stages, but then may collapse from loss of support, which requires costly repairs and service disruption. The present paper describes the procedure for nondestructive detection of voids under asphalt airfield pavement in Iran through the use of pavement evaluation equipment. A Heavy Weight Deflectometer (HWD), Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Dynamic Cone Penetrometer (DCP) were used to detect the voids. A grid pattern 2 m in width and 50 m in length was created along the 4.5 km long, 45 m wide runway and measurements were made at the grid corners. The runway pavement was then cored at the suspicious locations and DCP testing was carried out to verify the presence of voids.
