Runway Width Design Based on Wheel Trace Distribution Test

Abstract

The current runway width design in China was still according to the aircraft size and the accumulated experience in the flight process, and there is no clear calculation method. This paper proposed a new runway width design method based on the wheel traces distribution of the aircraft. A laser test system was developed to measure the aircraft wheel tracks of 17 cross sections along the runway at a feeder airport. The test results indicated that when aircraft takes off or lands, the transverse wheels traces obeyed a normal distribution. The variation curve in landing was selected to fit a numerical formula, which was used to calculate the maximum landing variation within the forward motion range, and the expression of the wheel trace transverse distribution on the section with the maximum discretization was determined. At last, a failure probability of 0.0001% was chosen as the criterion to determine the runway width. It was showed that B737-30 should have at least 45 m width to ensure the 0.0001 % failure probability.

Keywords

• Runway width design
• wheel trace transverse distribution
• site test
• change rule