Foamed concrete has been used in geotechnical applications as lightweight backfill material in applications where reduction of vertical or lateral loads was critical. In this application, the foamed concrete is designed to ‘fail’ when an aircraft overruns the regular runway. The foamed concrete Engineered Materials Arresting System or EMAS stops the aircraft without causing catastrophic damage. According to the article, there are about 30 runway overrun accidents each year involving commercial aircraft, and there have been about 1,000 deaths from these types of accidents since 1995. [Source: Gizmodo via ASCE SmartBrief. Image: Gizmodo]
