Development, Verification and Assessment of a Laser Profilometer and Analysis Algorithm for Microtexture Assessment of Runway Surfaces

Runway surface friction is critically important to safe aircraft operations and mostly depends on the surface texture, which provides grip in the presence of contamination and directly affects the friction coefficient in general. Microtexture assessment is the most challenging part of texture assessment since there is no standardised pavement microtexture control method in runway maintenance and management practice. The purpose of this study was to develop a simple laser profilometer and analysis model and subsequent validation for use in runway friction surveys. To that end, a simple laser profilometer was developed, and a profile picture analysis and macrotexture filtration method were designed. Test results were compared to the stylus-based roughness tester and the British Pendulum Tester. The proposed profile picture analysis and profile smothering and filtration methodology, based on linear approximation, is simpler and more effective for the case of macrotexture filtration for the friction survey. The laser profilometer model results were highly correlated with the stylus-based roughness tester results (R² = 0.99). The average roughness of the microtexture profile, after smothering and macrotexture filtration, also showed good correlation with the British Pendulum results (R² = 0.78). The results from this study confirm the possibility of texture assessment for routine runway friction surveys using a simple and economical laser profilometer, which is not routinely available in current airport surface friction management.