Timeous post Flight Detent. I'm in the middle of designing a runway for the A380.
All the runways, taxiways and aprons taking A380s will have surfacings of asphalt (asphaltic concrete) or concrete. For accountants, these are black or white respectively. The asphalt surfacing will be at least 100mm and probably 125mm thick. In most countries (probably all of Europe, N & S America, Asia) it will have another layer of asphalt 150-250mm thick beneath it, and other materials below that. The concrete surfacings will be 350-400mm thick, and are not going to break.
The likelihood of damage to those asphalt surfacings under normal ops is fairly small. I was looking at a road engineering presentation the other day, and saw (on a steep hill carrying road trains) a horizontal force of 6 kN from the drive tyre had caused delamination of the thin asphalt surfacing layer. This layer was only 50mm thick, and had the unusual defect of being without proper bonding to the lower layer. That corresponds to a horizontal shear stress of approximately 650 kPa in the asphalt layer which eventually caused something like fatigue cracking. The asphalt didn't tear out in chunks, but eventually looked cracked and aged.
I calculated the horizontal shear stresses under medium aircraft braking, based on the earlier thread about the 747 classic and brakes, and assuming it will be stopping at 6 ft/sec/sec (don't know what deceleration maximum braking gives - any thoughts welcome). This equates to a horizontal force per tyre of 45 kN in the A380 case, assuming the same medium braking deceleration rate and at MTOW. That in turn is a horizontal shear stress of 780 kPa in a 125mm thick asphalt layer. If the asphalt is not bonded to the layer beneath, and exactly the same point on the runway gets stressed each time, the failure mode is again going to be delamination and fatigue cracking. That will only be after a few thousand movements over exactly the same spot, which is going to be rare, and that will be detected during frequent runway inspections. I would not expect to see big chunks of surfacing tearing out. If anything does happen, it would only lead to some localised surfacing patches and a general resurfacing after 5-8 years instead of the usual 8-12 years.
To get big chunks tearing out, the asphalt has to break or tear. This means shear failure, and the shear capacity of the asphalt layer is an order of magnitude above these stresses. I simply do not think it is going to tear, and that was echoed when I called a senior colleague just now, who has surfaced more than a few 747 airports with asphalt.
I know of a couple of failures where chunks of asphalt have torn out and been sucked up by aircraft in the past, but the surface was already broken and cracked and unsuited to aircraft operations. That didn't stop the airport parking planes on it, until one day someone did an engine test on one of them . . .
However I can see as a result of this discussion that attention needs to be given to the bonding with the lower layers [read that as I will be giving close attention to that as soon as I've finished typing this].
The Airbus airport planning manual, in presenting its ground manoeuvring section, avoids the question:
For ease of presentation, this data has been determined from the theoretical limits imposed by the geometry of the aircraft, and where noted, provides for a normal allowance for tire slippage. As such, it reflects the turning capability of the aircraft in favorable operating circumstances. This data should only be used as guidelines for the method of determination of such parameters and for the maneuvering characteristics of this aircraft type. In the ground operating mode, varying airline practices may demand that more conservative turning procedures be adopted to avoid excessive tire wear and reduce possible maintenance problems. Airline operating techniques will vary in the level of performance, over a wide range of operating circumstances throughout the world. Variations from standard aircraft operating patterns may be necessary to satisfy physical constraints within the maneuvering area, such as adverse grades, limited area or high risk of jet blast damage. For these reasons, ground maneuvering requirements should be coordinated with the using airlines prior to layout planning.