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Dynamic soil stress in the ground induced by aircraft loads can lead to excessive and differential settlements. The effect of aircraft speeds on the dynamic stress is complicated due to runway roughness, lift force and wave propagation. In this paper, a virtual prototype model of B777-300 was initially developed to investigate the aircraft loads impacted by runway roughness and lift force. Subsequently, a finite element model of the runway was established for the dynamic stress in the ground subjected to moving aircraft loads. Results show that as aircraft speed increases, the aircraft-load-induced dynamic stress in the ground first increases and then decreases. The critical speed of dynamic stress accompanied with a peak stress varies with soil depth. In the shallow soil layers, dynamic stress in the ground is mainly affected by runway roughness and lift force. The critical speed of dynamic stress is close to the sensitive speed corresponding to peak aircraft loads. With the increase of soil depth and aircraft speed, the effect of dynamic amplification due to wave propagation becomes more pronounced. In the deep soil layers, the critical speed of dynamic stress approaches the Rayleigh wave velocity of soils, especially when soft soil layers exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Airport runway roughness can be characterised by power spectral density (PSD) and two spectrum parameters, namely, the unevenness index and waviness. In order to find suitable spectrum parameters for airport runway roughness, seven runway profiles in China were measured to expand the current database of runway profiles. The statistical distributions of the spectrum parameters for runway roughness then were calculated, and the effects of the spectrum parameters on aircraft vibrations were analysed. The results show that the mode of the unevenness index is 0.13, which is a little lower than that of an A-level road, and the mode of waviness is 2.2, which is higher than the waviness recommended in ISO road classification. Moreover, as the unevenness index and the waviness increase, the aircraft vibrations become more severe. The aircraft vibration responses can be represented as a function of waviness, unevenness index, and speed, with a high correlation. At a constant speed, the relationship between the threshold values of the unevenness index and waviness can be shown as a straight line in a log plot. Finally, taking 200 km/h as the representative speed, threshold curves of the spectrum parameters, which are based on ride comfort levels and statistical analysis are proposed for the the simulation of aircraft vibration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]