Changes in climatic conditions can directly affect pavement performance. However, accounting for environmental factors in airport pavement design remains a challenge since design methods such as FAA rigid and flexible iterative elastic layered design (FAARFIELD) do not consider moisture and temperature variation as input. Therefore, to address this research gap and improve the resilience of airport pavements, this research proposes a new methodology for the structural design of flexible airport pavements. The proposed methodology in this research was applied to a case study of an international airport in Canada, using actual field data. Five scenarios were evaluated including the current climate, temperature increase, lower matric suction, and two flooding events. The results of the proposed design method showed that the traditional FAARFIELD analysis can possibly overestimate fatigue damage, and underestimate rutting damage. The outcomes showed that climate change can increase pavement damage and shorten the service life from 7 to 14 years in the scenarios evaluated. It was also concluded that the lowering of the matric suction can result in the highest damage levels. Considering the implications of climate change on transportation infrastructure, the proposed methodology can contribute to designing more resilient airport pavements in the future, since it accounts for climate variations, temperature, and moisture changes, as well as extreme events such as flooding over the design life of flexible airport pavements.

Rising temperatures due to climate change can significantly impact the freeze–thaw condition of airport pavements in cold regions. This case study investigates the implications of warming temperatures on the freeze–thaw penetration and frost heave of pavements in critical airports across Canada. To this end, different methods were used in the quantification process through climate change simulations considering emission scenario RCP8.5 in 20 and 40 year time horizons. The results show that climate change would have different design implications for airport pavements, depending on their location. The predictions suggest a shallower frost penetration depth, and possibly less frost heave, for the airports not underlain by permafrost, while airports over permafrost areas might experience an increase in thickness of the active layer, ranging from 41 to 57 percent, by 2061. Among the different methods used in this study, it was observed that some methods performed better in predicting the frost depth of fine soils, while others worked better in the frost depth prediction of coarse soils. The results indicate the need for more mechanistic models to provide a more realistic prediction of freeze–thaw penetration, as compared to existing empirical models.

Rising temperatures due to the climate change can significantly impact the frost/thaw condition of airport pavements in cold regions. This case study investigates the implications of the the warming temperatures on frost/thaw penetration and frost-heave of pavements for critical airports across Canada. To this end, different methods were used in the quantification process through climate change simulations considering the emission scenario RCP8.5 in a 20- and 40-year time horizon. The results show that climate change would have different design implications for airport pavements depending on their location. The predictions suggest a shallower frost penetration depth and possibly less frost-heave for the airports not underlain by permafrost, while airports over permafrost areas might experience an increase in thickness of the active layer ranging from 41 to 57 percent by 2061. Among the different methods used in this study, it was observed that some methods performed the best in predicting frost depth of fine soils, while others worked better with the frost depth prediction of coarse soils. The results indicate the need for more mechanistic models to provide a more realistic prediction of frost/thaw penetration as compared to the existing empirical models.