Development of an Asphalt Pavement Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Test Facility

Oklahoma State University (OSU) developed an airport runway near Elgin, Oklahoma, to evaluate lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). This paper documents the construction and evaluation of the asphalt pavement testing runway for the UAV facility. The preparation and construction of the runway was first discussed. Four asphalt mixtures were sampled and tested for the 2-in. surface lifts using a foamed warm mix asphalt (WMA) technology and hot mix asphalt pavements with reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). The dynamic modulus and semicircular bend (SCB) testing were performed to evaluate the four experimental mixtures used in the facility. Subsequently, runway surface characterization and performance evaluation results, in terms of pavement cracking, longitudinal profiling and roughness, surface texture, and pavement friction, were presented based on the field data collection performed using four stateof-the-art instruments. The results from this study demonstrated that the UAV testing runway with the mixes evaluated met the material requirements and had a superior short-term field performance.