Assessment of Runway Surface Conditions by British Pendulum Testing under the Global Reporting Format Winter Conditions
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper presents a laboratory study aimed at assessing the surface runway conditions under several environmental situations, also in the case of de-icing products application in anti-icing (before event) or de-icing (after event) mode. Several British Pendulum tests were replicated on concrete samples in the laboratory.
The Reviewer does not signal significant contents to be changed/or revised. However, he points out a crucial aspect referred to the theoretical approach of the research: the experimentation seems referred to cement concrete surfaces. Indeed, when dealing with runways, the worldwide habit implies asphalt concrete runways because of the take-off/landing speeds causing great tangential stresses. Thus, the Authors must clearly specify that this fact is not common when introducing the materials. Moreover, such concern should be carefully considered when commenting the obtained results (severity of environmental conditions, or even the effectiveness of the de-icing products, could be different in the case of the asphalt concrete that represents the most common situation).
Please, check line 228 (part of the original template seems to be still present).
Author Response
Dear Reviewer 1,
Thank you for your valuable comments. Thank you for your comment regarding the substrate.
All changes have been kept in tracking mode.
We agree with your comments. All of our tests have been conducted with cement concrete surface (Permacon Heritage Paving Block) which is common in North America and particularly Canada. We added some information regarding the test substrate in the manuscript.
In order not to mislead the reader by specifying only cemented surfaces, we have added, at your recommendation, information on the types of surfaces while keeping our cemented concrete surfaces.
We also removed the text at line 228.
Hope the modifications will satisfy,
Jean-Denis Brassard P.Eng. Ph.D.
Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Canada.
Reviewer 2 Report
The research evaluated surface conditions in the winter using the British pendulum. Some proofreading and editing are required to improve readership comprehension. Based on the literature, this is a topic widely researched, and it is a subject of great interest. Some recommendations were listed.
Page 1, Line 3 8 - ASTM - The first time an acronym appears in the text must be identified.
In the Introduction section, it is important to add references about British pendulum limitations in microtexture evaluation. Also, a table showing results (BP) obtained in other references is missing.
The quality of Figure 3 and Table 1 are poor.
Please provide more information about the concrete slab characteristics used to perform the tests. Add a Figure showing the laboratory tests (slabs and BP) is recommended.
In the Conclusions, include comments on the research limitations and prospect uses in practice.
Provide an English grammar correction.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer 2
Thank you for your good comments.
Regarding your comments, all the changes have been kept in tracking mode.
ASTM has been defined at the beginning of the manuscript as recommended. (Line 38)
2 lines have been added regarding the limitation of the BPT regarding microtextures (Line 172) . We also added a table with BPN value for some reference conditions found in the literature along with the review conducted. (Line 128)
We improved the quality of the Figure 3 (line 214) and table 1 (now table 2) (line 245).
We add more information as well as an image of the concrete slab (Permacon Heritage Paving Block) (Line 158) . See also the figure 1 (line 169).
We also improve the manuscript by adding some limitation of this study and how we can continue the work (line 386).
Finally, an English grammar correction has been performed
Hope the modifications will satisfy,
Jean-Denis Brassard P.Eng. Ph.D.
Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Canada.
