PROPOSED CONSTRUCTION OF NEW AIRCRAFT PARKING APRON TO ACCOMMODATE THREE (3) ADDITIONAL

AIRCRAFT STANDS, REHABILITATE THE EXISTING TAXILANE AND A PORTION OF TAXIWAY J, RECONFIGURATION
OF EXISTING PAVEMENT MARKINGS AT NORTHERN APRON AND ALL ASSOCIATED WORKS AT KOTA KINABALU
INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, SABAH.

PAVEMENT CLASSIFICATION NUMBER (PCN)/AIRCRAFT CLASSIFICATION NUMBER (ACN) REPORT.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

For each aircraft’s total equivalent coverages, a pavement design thickness can be calculated
using the COMFAA software. If the resulting required design thickness for all aircraft in the
mix is less than the actual pavement thickness, then the pavement can handle all the traffic,
and the resulting PCN should be greater than the highest ACN values.

Conversely, if the actual pavement thickness is less than that required by the COMFAA design
thickness computation, then the PCN would be lower than some of the ACN values, thereby
possibly restricting some operations. Unless the pavement is subject to extreme overloading,
it is unlikely to fail suddenly or catastrophically. Nevertheless, regular overload operations can
substantially reduce the design life of the pavement.

The PCN values for each aircraft in the mix are automatically calculated by the COMFAA
program. The PCN is merely the aircraft ACN at its maximum allowable weight. The maximum
allowable weight is based on the total equivalent coverages of each aircraft and the actual
pavement thickness, and it is an indication of the true bearing strength of the pavement.

2.0 ANNUAL TRAFFIC

The Maximum Taxi Weight (MTW) of each aircraft is shown rather than actual operating
weights. There are at least two (2) reasons for using maximum weights:

(a) The COMFAA program lists each aircraft at MTW, and the construction of the traffic
file for that program is less tedious when MTW is used.
(b) The use of MTW rather than actual weights is more conservative

The recent traffic data as shown in Table 1 is used as input for the analysis.

Annual
Aircraft Name MTW (Tonnes)
Departure

B737-900 21.960 79.42

A320-100 34,560 68.4

DASH 7 14,400 19.87

B777-200ER 600 298.45

A330-300 std 1.500 230.90

Table 1: Aircraft Properties

The aircraft B777-200ER has the highest ACN value among all the aircraft and is selected as
the critical aircraft.
JURUTERA PERUNDING ZAABA SDN. BHD. Page 1 of 5
PROPOSED CONSTRUCTION OF NEW AIRCRAFT PARKING APRON TO ACCOMMODATE THREE (3) ADDITIONAL
AIRCRAFT STANDS, REHABILITATE THE EXISTING TAXILANE AND A PORTION OF TAXIWAY J, RECONFIGURATION
OF EXISTING PAVEMENT MARKINGS AT NORTHERN APRON AND ALL ASSOCIATED WORKS AT KOTA KINABALU
INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, SABAH.

PAVEMENT CLASSIFICATION NUMBER (PCN)/AIRCRAFT CLASSIFICATION NUMBER (ACN) REPORT.

3.0 RIGID PAVEMENT

The pavement characteristics of the completed rehabilitation works at parking apron for rigid
pavement is indicated in Table 2 below.

Rigid Pavement Structure Existing Layer Thickness (mm)

P-501 Pavement Quality Concrete 450

P-306 Lean concrete 125

P-209 Crushed Aggregate 650

Table 2: Pavement Characteristics

Based on previous measurement, the results derived from analysis indicated the modulus for
subgrade at rigid pavement area is indicating CBR 5 that falls in Category ‘D’ in PCN reporting.
The calculated effective k-value is 101.52 MN/m3 (as shown in Figure 1 below).

Figure 1: COMFAA Support Spreadsheet

JURUTERA PERUNDING ZAABA SDN. BHD. Page 2 of 5

PROPOSED CONSTRUCTION OF NEW AIRCRAFT PARKING APRON TO ACCOMMODATE THREE (3) ADDITIONAL
AIRCRAFT STANDS, REHABILITATE THE EXISTING TAXILANE AND A PORTION OF TAXIWAY J, RECONFIGURATION
OF EXISTING PAVEMENT MARKINGS AT NORTHERN APRON AND ALL ASSOCIATED WORKS AT KOTA KINABALU
INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, SABAH.

PAVEMENT CLASSIFICATION NUMBER (PCN)/AIRCRAFT CLASSIFICATION NUMBER (ACN) REPORT.

4.0 PCN CALCULATION

After inputting the traffic data, the pavement characteristics and effective k-value into
COMFAA, the initial pavement output is generated. The resulted input traffic data is shown
in Figure 2. A relatively uniform range of calculated thicknesses, with values being a little less
than the evaluation thickness of 450mm shows that this pavement is well designed for this
traffic.

Figure 2: Input traffic Data

With the Total CDF of 0.50 which are lesser than 1.000, indication is provided that the
pavement can not only accommodate the evaluation traffic, but that it could handle more
traffic until the total CDF limit of 1.000 is reached.

Although lower CDF values mean that these aircraft have lower impact on the pavement, the
highest CDF does not necessarily determine the highest PCN. The lower CDF just indicates the
relative importance of the aircraft to the PCN calculation.

Finally, there are two (2) aircrafts that show >5,000,000 “Critical Aircraft Total Equivalent
Coverages” in the second column, meaning that these aircraft have very large equivalent
coverage levels and correspondingly very low CDF contributions.

Figure 3: PCN Values

Figure 4: Rigid ACN at Indicated Gross Weight and Strength

JURUTERA PERUNDING ZAABA SDN. BHD. Page 3 of 5
PROPOSED CONSTRUCTION OF NEW AIRCRAFT PARKING APRON TO ACCOMMODATE THREE (3) ADDITIONAL
AIRCRAFT STANDS, REHABILITATE THE EXISTING TAXILANE AND A PORTION OF TAXIWAY J, RECONFIGURATION
OF EXISTING PAVEMENT MARKINGS AT NORTHERN APRON AND ALL ASSOCIATED WORKS AT KOTA KINABALU
INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, SABAH.

PAVEMENT CLASSIFICATION NUMBER (PCN)/AIRCRAFT CLASSIFICATION NUMBER (ACN) REPORT.

The same critical aircraft is adopted in comparing with PCN value in rigid which is B777-200ER.

With the graphic results shown below in Figure 5, the CDF thicknesses for entire types of
aircrafts are lower than the thickness of P-501(PCC) layer. Thus, the PCN will be sufficient for
the aircraft.

Figure 5: Aircraft Mix

The “Maximum Allowable Aircraft Gross Weight from CDF” (line 4) is a precursor of the PCN
calculation in that the PCN of each aircraft is simply the ACN at this weight. In this example
these weights are greater than the input weights (line 5), indicating that each will have a PCN
that exceeds its ACN.

The “Maximum Allowable Aircraft Gross Weight from CDF” in Figure 6 shows the graphic
comparison of ACN and PCN for the six most demanding aircraft of the traffic mix. From the
chart, the calculated PCN is 69/R/D/W/T taking B777-200ER as the critical aircraft.

JURUTERA PERUNDING ZAABA SDN. BHD. Page 4 of 5

PROPOSED CONSTRUCTION OF NEW AIRCRAFT PARKING APRON TO ACCOMMODATE THREE (3) ADDITIONAL
AIRCRAFT STANDS, REHABILITATE THE EXISTING TAXILANE AND A PORTION OF TAXIWAY J, RECONFIGURATION
OF EXISTING PAVEMENT MARKINGS AT NORTHERN APRON AND ALL ASSOCIATED WORKS AT KOTA KINABALU
INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, SABAH.

PAVEMENT CLASSIFICATION NUMBER (PCN)/AIRCRAFT CLASSIFICATION NUMBER (ACN) REPORT.

Figure 6: Rigid PCN/ACN

5.0 CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION

From the calculations conducted for other areas, the lower value of PCN was selected to
declare the PCN value of Kota Kinabalu International Airport new parking apron pavements
for Rigid pavement PCN Notation is 69/R/D/W/T.

JURUTERA PERUNDING ZAABA SDN. BHD. Page 5 of 5