Strength assessment of airport pavement based on Dempster-Shafer evidence and gray relation

The study focused on the influence of various engineering factors on the strength of rigid airport pavement. Based on different test schemes, we established indoor and outdoor tests, compared the strength test results, and quantitatively analyzed the impacts of mechanical damage, maintenance conditions, and construction technology on the splitting strength of rigid airport pavement. We further fitted the correction coefficients of the splitting strength of core samples with different height-diameter ratios. Dempster-Shafer (D-S) evidence theory and gray correlation analysis were used to analyze the correlation between the influencing factors and the pavement splitting tensile strength. The importance of the factors affecting the rigid airport pavement strength was then determined. The results showed that the loss rates of pavement splitting tensile strength caused by differences in construction technology, curing conditions, and mechanical damage were 6.90%, 4.43%, and 2.11%, respectively. The correlation between each influencing factor and pavement tensile strength was good. The degree of influence decreased in the following order: construction technology > curing conditions > mechanical damage. These findings can help the reasonable allocation of resources on construction sites.