DRAINAGE OF AIRPORT

Surface and Subsurface drainage

 Introduction
• The airport is subjected to water either from the
atmosphere in the form of rain and snowfall or
from ground water by capillary action or
percolation of rain water
• Thus the water can be classified as surface water
and subsurface water.
• The water affects the airport in many ways
i. Surface water may get pounded on runways,
taxiways and aprons. It may interfere with the safe
landing and take off operations of the aircrafts
ii. It deteriorates the paved surfaces causing high
maintenance costs in the airport
iii. The subsurface water may weaken the subgrade
soil by reducing its bearing capacity. As a result the
paved structures like runway, taxiway and aprons
may fail due to settlement
iv. Delays in arrival and departure of passengers may
be caused as the paved surfaces may be dried
before the take off and landing of aircraft
 Types of Airport Drainage
The drainage of airport may be classified as:

1. Surface drainage
2. Subsurface drainage
 1- Surface Drainage
• The surface water is drained from the paved
area by providing suitable drains to the
paved area
• The intercepting drains are provided to
receive the surface water and to prevent the
airport paved area
• The intercepting drains are so aligned that
surface water is removed through them by
surface slopes
• The pervious layer over the drain is continuous over
the entire length of runway and functions as
continuous inlet for the perforated pipe placed
directly below it
• The top of the pervious layer is kept at the same
level as the landing strip so as to offer no hazard to
the safe operation of the aircraft
• To avoid pipe clogging and to prevent finer
materials from draining away, the intercepting drain
must be designed as a regular filter
• The outlets from the intercepting drains
should be located at 30-100 meters
centre to centre to drain water to the main
sewer
• The runoff is calculated for the most
intense rain of the year
• The diameters of the sewers and drains
are calculated by manning’s formula
Airport Surface Drainage
 Subsurface Drainage
• If water table of the area is high i.e., less than
4 ft from the soil subgrade then this water may
reach the subgrade by capillary action and
tends to reduce its bearing capacity and
ultimately causes the failure of the pavement
• To prevent this, subsurface drains are provided
 Cont….
• These are in the form of perforated pipes
laid under the runway and taxiway to
intercept the underground seepage flow
coming to subsoil from groundwater
• The drains are then connected to the
surface drains by intercepting drains
Subsurface Drainage
Thank You