Investigating the potential of using glass foam for an EMAS material to mitigate aircraft overrun accidents

ABSTRACT

An aircraft overrun occurs when an aircraft is unable to stop within the runway design length. Commercial airports are required to have a 305 m (1000-ft) runway safety area (RSA) at each runway end to avail an aircraft adequate length for stoppage during an overrun. At airports where this space is unavailable, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) allows for an airport to use an Engineered Materials Arresting System (EMAS). An EMAS is positioned within the RSA and is comprised of an energy absorbing material that brings the aircraft to stoppage through drag forces developed at the tire-EMAS interface. EMAS are constructed using low-density 1.21 m × 1.21 m (4-ft × 4-ft) variable thickness cementitious blocks. The blocks are aligned adjacent to one another to form a rectangular EMAS bed within the RSA. This article presents the computer code, SGAS, developed by the author to predict aircraft stopping distance and behaviour of current aircraft types within an EMAS. The SGAS computer code is validated with results from the FAA ARRESTOR computer code. After validating the SGAS computer code, this article investigates the potential for using glass foam blocks as an alternative EMAS material.

KEYWORDS:

• Airfield runway
• runway safety area
• engineered materials arresting system (EMAS)
• aircraft overrun

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This research work was conducted under a Technical Assistance Agreement between the University of Arkansas and the Pittsburgh Corning Corporation.