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Evaluating the aggregate structure in hot-mix asphalt using three-dimensional

computer modeling and particle packing simulations

Article  in  Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering · February 2011

DOI: 10.1139/l06-046

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 945

Evaluating the aggregate structure in hot-mix

asphalt using three-dimensional computer
modeling and particle packing simulations
Naga Shashidhar and Kasthurirangan Gopalakrishnan

Abstract: In a hot-mix asphalt (HMA) pavement, the aggregate structure serves as a backbone and is primarily respon-
sible for resisting pavement distresses. A sound aggregate structure implies optimal packing of aggregates providing
both particle–particle contact and sufficient void space to fill in asphalt. In this paper, three-dimensional particle pack-
ing concepts are applied to the study of aggregate structure in HMA. A sequential deposition packing algorithm was
used for packing typical aggregate gradations. The packing fraction and the distribution of particle–particle contacts in
the simulated compact were studied. The packing simulation gave satisfactory results when aggregates above a certain
minimum size were considered. Regression models were established to estimate the coordination number of any size
aggregate in the compact. Such studies, in conjunction with the recent advances in X-ray computed tomography imag-
ing techniques and discrete element modeling (DEM) simulations, have tremendous potential to help develop a deeper
understanding of the HMA aggregate structure, develop and optimize the various parameters that describe the aggregate
structure, and relate these parameters to the performance of pavements in a scientific way.
Key words: packing, aggregate structure, computer simulation, aggregate–aggregate contact, pavement performance.
Résumé : Dans une mélange à chaud de béton bitumineux (« hot-mix asphalt (HMA) »), l’agencement des granulats
sert de squelette et est la principale source de la résistance des chaussées contre les dommages importants. Un sain
agencement des granulats implique un tassement optimal des granulats, avec un contact particule à particule et suffi-
samment de vides pour les remplir de béton bitumineux. Le présent article applique les concepts tridimensionnels de
tassement des particules à l’étude de l’agencement des granulats dans les HMA. Un algorithme de tassement avec dé-
position séquentielle a été utilisé pour le tassement des granulométries typiques des granulats. La fraction de tassement
et la distribution des contacts interparticule dans le compactage simulé ont aussi été étudiées. La simulation de tasse-
ment a offert des résultats satisfaisants lorsque des granulats plus gros qu’une certaine dimension minimale ont été
considérés. Des modèles de régression ont été établis pour estimer l’indice de coordination d’un granulat de toute di-
mension dans le bitume compacté. De telles études, en conjonction avec les plus récents avancements dans les techni-
ques d’imagerie par tomographie aux rayons X assistée par ordinateur et les simulations par modélisation par éléments
discrets (« discrete element modeling (DEM) »), présentent un potentiel énorme pour nous aider à mieux comprendre
l’agencement des granulats HMA et le relier au rendement des bétons bitumineux de manière scientifique.
Mots clés : tassement, agencement des granulats, simulation par ordinateur, contact granulat–granulat, comportement de
la chaussée.

[Traduit par la Rédaction] Shashidhar and Gopalakrishnan 954

Introduction A typical dense-graded hot-mix asphalt (HMA) pavement

When a truck applies a load on pavement, the load is
distributed and transmitted to the layers underneath.
Thus, the function of the pavement is to transfer and dis-
tribute the load and provide a smooth surface for a pleas-
ant ride.
is made of 86% by volume of aggregates bound with about
10% by volume of asphalt and incorporates 4% air voids.
The asphalt binder is a viscoelastic material that has a much
lower ability to carry loads when compared to aggregates.
Since the binder is viscoelastic, it tends to deform and flow
under load. It is generally recognized that the coarse aggre-

Received 16 March 2005. Revision accepted 2 March 2006. Published on the NRC Research Press Web site at http://cjce.nrc.ca on
22 September 2006.
N. Shashidhar.1 FHWA/Soil and Land Use Technology, Inc., 6300 Georgetown Pike, McLean, VA 22101, USA.
K. Gopalakrishnan.2,3 Turner–Fairbanks Highway Research Center, 6300 Georgetown Pike, McLean, VA 22101, USA.
Written discussion of this article is welcomed and will be received by the Editor until 31 December 2006.
1
Present address: Corning Inc., One Riverfront Plaza, HP-CB-08-7, Corning, NY 14831, USA.
2
Corresponding author (e-mail: rangan@iastate.edu).
3
Present address: Department of Civil Engineering, 498 Town Engineering Building, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.

Can. J. Civ. Eng. 33: 945–954 (2006) doi:10.1139/L06-046 © 2006 NRC Canada
946
gates in HMA pavements form a skeleton that primarily sup-
ports the load.
Shashidhar et al. (2000) showed that the stress is transmit-
ted from particle to particle through the aggregate skeleton
in HMA. Using photoelastic methods, it was shown that the
loads were transmitted from aggregate to aggregate in a two-
dimensional representation of asphalt concrete. Appropriate
sized glass disks (6.3 mm thick) were used to simulate
coarse aggregates (i.e., aggregates larger than 4.35 mm in di-
ameter). Fine aggregates and asphalt were used with these
disks to represent coarse, fine, and stone matrix asphalt
(SMA) gradations. These gradations were compacted in a
two-dimensional assembly such that the glass disks were
transparent to light. The stresses in the glass disks could be
studied when this sample was stressed with a static load and
viewed under polarized light. It was qualitatively shown that
the stresses are conducted from particle to particle. It was
also shown that different aggregate gradations give different
aggregate structures and therefore different stress patterns.
There is much key evidence that supports the significance
of aggregate structure in HMA. The better performance of
SMA is attributed to a better coarse aggregate skeleton in
these mixes compared to that in the dense-graded HMA
(Scherocman 1991; Brown et al. 1998). The Bailey method
of gradation selection (Vavrik et al. 2001) reportedly pro-
duces an aggregate blend that is packed together in a sys-
tematic manner to form an aggregate skeleton. This method
has been successfully used by the Illinois Department of
Transportation (IDOT) to design and control mixes for their
projects.
Although the Bailey method is intuitive, there are several
points that need clarification. It is generally considered that
coarse aggregates form the aggregate skeleton, and it is un-
clear how these coarse aggregates are defined. In general,
aggregates greater than the 4.75 mm sieve (No. 4) or the
2.36 mm sieve (No. 8) are considered as coarse aggregates.
The Bailey method defines the cut-off for the coarse aggre-
gate as the nominal maximum aggregate size multiplied by
0.22. Since the origins of these cut-off limits are uncertain, it
is unclear if the aggregates below this cut-off will participate
in aggregate skeleton. It is also uncertain what effect the ag-
gregate gradation will have on this cut-off. Also, if the role
of coarse aggregates is defined as skeleton forming, what
would be the role of fine aggregates? Do they just fill the
voids in the skeleton and make the mix less pervious? This
is important because they increase the durability of the pave-
ments in this role.
Although the importance of aggregate structure (namely,
coarse aggregate interlock) in HMA is widely recognized,
there are no direct methods of estimating the degree of ag-
gregate interlock. The recent developments in computer
technology, image-analysis techniques, and nondestructive
imaging (such as X-ray computed tomography) have demon-
strated the potential to quantify the aggregate structure in
HMA. These methods have been applied recently in study-
ing the differences among different laboratory compaction
methods, improving the simulation of laboratory compaction
to field compaction, and predicting the permeability of
HMA mixtures (Masad and Button 2004).
The presence of aggregate interlock in SMA has been in-
vestigated using indirect methods (Brown and Mallick 1995;
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 33, 2006
Brown and Haddock 1996). At the National Center for As-
phalt Technology (NCAT), Brown et al. (1998) investigated
the ability of different compaction techniques (such as the
Marshall hammer and the Superpave gyratory compactor) to
determine whether stone-on-stone contact exists in the
coarse aggregate fraction of SMA mixes. One of the meth-
ods currently used at the NCAT is to dry-rod the coarse ag-
gregate and determine the voids in the coarse aggregate in
the dry-rodded condition (VCADRC) (AASHTO 2000). It is
assumed that stone-on-stone contact exists if voids in the
coarse aggregate (VCA) in the mixture is equal to or less
than VCADRC. It is not clear, however, to what extent the
stone-on-stone contact exists.
Aggregate interlock can be fully characterized if all the
particle–particle contacts in a compact are counted, the aver-
age number of contacts per particle is calculated, and the
stability of this structure is somehow established. If all the
characteristics can be measured, it will be possible to study
the effects of various parameters on aggregate interlock,
such as aggregate gradation, angularity, and the influence of
flat and elongated particles. The mix can then be optimized
to give the most stable structure. If the aggregate characteris-
tics can be optimized to give the most stable structure, the
mix should become extremely resistant to rutting and the in-
fluence of the asphalt binder should be minimal.
It is extremely difficult to measure the aggregate–aggregate
contacts directly. Perhaps the nature of relationships between
the aggregate characteristics and the aggregate interlock could
be evaluated by other techniques, and then such relationships
could be used to achieve the best aggregate skeleton. Physical
methods such as the paint method (Bernal and Mason 1960)
and optical techniques (Bernal et al. 1970) have been used to
study the contacts between the particles. These methods are
tedious, however, and do not have the resolution necessary to
distinguish between contacts and near-contacts. Also, it is not
known how these methods will perform if the aggregates vary
in size. In areas such as ceramics and powder metallurgy,
computer-simulation methods have proven to be effective and
consistent in studying the contacts and their distributions in
random packing structures (Nolan and Kavanagh 1993).
The discrete element method (DEM) (Cundall and Strack
1979) has been used for modeling granular systems. The
DEM treats particles as distinct interacting bodies. Interac-
tions between particles are described by contact laws that
define forces and moments created by relative motions of the
particles. DEM offers a better opportunity to understand the
micromechanical behavior of granular materials considering
particulate assembly using microparameters such as average
coordination number, induced anisotropy coefficients, and
fabric tensors. Contact type is identified by contact proper-
ties such as normal stiffness, tangential stiffness, coefficient
of friction, and adhesion between types of particles
(Sitharam et al. 2004).
Detailed microscopic information in a numerically simu-
lated assembly of spheres can be used to trace the evolution
of the microstructure and the contact forces during shear de-
formations. Numerical simulations using DEM on plane as-
semblies of discs by several researchers have been used to
study such relationships (Cundall 1978; Cundall and Strack
1979; Rothenburg 1980; Bathrust 1985; Jean and Moreau
1992; Rothenburg and Bathurst 1992). In particulate media,
© 2006 NRC Canada
Shashidhar and Gopalakrishnan
each particle will be in contact with several of its neighbors,
forming a group where each particle interacts with neighbors
at the contact point and through contact forces (Sitharam et
al. 2004).
To extend the DEM techniques to real aggregates, one ma-
jor step involves using a range of particle sizes. Zhong et al.
(2000) developed methods to use this technique for accom-
modating particles with sizes spanning two decades. The de-
termination of the initial structure of the granular assembly
is an important input to this modeling. The typical technique
to obtain this starting assembly is particle packing simula-
tions. Although simulation methods have been used exten-
sively in modeling the microstructure of Portland cement
concrete (Bentz 1997), their application for studying asphalt
concrete is relatively new. This paper demonstrates the po-
tential benefits of using particle packing simulations to study
the aggregate structure in HMA.
The asphalt materials team at the Turner–Fairbanks High-
way Research Center (TFHRC) is currently working to de-
velop the scientific basis underlying the HMA mix design
process and to establish criteria to predict pavement perfor-
mance through a multidisciplinary initiative entitled Simula-
tion, imaging and mechanics of asphalt pavement (SIMAP).
Shashidhar et al. (2000) modeled and studied the stress pat-
terns within unbound aggregates in HMA using DEM tech-
niques. This paper focuses on applying particle packing
simulation concepts for modeling the microstructure of HMA.
The modeling is expected to start by simulating the packing
of spherical particles with a specified gradation, and then add
other factors such as surface roughness, presence of asphalt
binder, and aggregate angularity. The model is expected to
calculate characteristics of the compacted asphalt mixture,
such as bulk density, voids content, void distribution, and av-
erage coordination number of each particle, and yield infor-
mation useful to mixture design and particulate mechanics
modeling of HMA.
Potential benefits of computer simulation
Computer simulations could be used to study the aggregate
skeleton. For instance, Gopalakrishnan et al. (2005) have suc-
cessfully developed a method to estimate the degree of com-
paction in HMA by studying the aggregate structure from
two-dimensional image analysis of HMA specimens and from
results obtained from computer simulations. A two-
dimensional cross section of HMA was simulated in a com-
puter using the mixture design information, and certain statis-
tical parameters based on nearest-neighbor distance methods
were computed. The simulation results were compared with
the results obtained from the image analysis of actual HMA
specimens, and both results compared favorably.
In computer packing simulation, the gradation is input
into the computer. The computer then packs the particles
into a compact. An advantage of studying computer-
simulated models as opposed to physical models is that the
geometrical properties of the packing structure can be accu-
rately determined, as the particle coordinates are precisely
known to the machine accuracy of the computer. Since the
exact locations of these particles are known, the number of
contacts, the coordination number of these contacts, and
other characteristics of the compact can be estimated. It is
947
possible to use mathematical descriptors for particle shape
and surface texture and introduce flat and elongated parti-
cles, and thereby study their effects on HMA properties.
Also, the computer could be programmed to find the opti-
mized gradation that would yield a mix with desired proper-
ties. In this loop, the computer would start with an initial
gradation and calculate the characteristics of the compact. It
could then vary the inputs and check the characteristics of
the compact in a closed loop until the desired characteristics
are achieved.
Perhaps the most significant benefit is that computer sim-
ulations cost less and require less effort than conducting real
experiments. It is admitted that it takes effort to develop the
computer code and theory and validate the code, but, once
developed, several simulations can be run in a short time.
For instance, if the effect of different gradations on the den-
sity of HMA was to be evaluated, the aggregates have to be
sieved and batched. They have to be heated, mixed with hot
asphalt, compacted, and cooled. Then the specific gravity
has to be measured by, say, the saturated surface-dry method
(AASHTO 2005). The whole process could take as long as a
day to test one sample. If, however, a computer simulation
technique has been developed, the complete testing for a
given gradation can be done in a few minutes. Furthermore,
the variability in measured properties would be much higher
than what could be obtained through computer simulation
techniques. Sometimes the real differences between proper-
ties may not be detected by physical testing because the
noise level is so high. In simulation, it is possible to achieve
a much lower coefficient of variation. Multiple simulation
runs can further reduce the coefficient of variation.
If an anomalous result is obtained by computer simula-
tion, the resultant compact can be examined to determine if
there was anything unusual in the compact. In a physical
sample, however, it is extremely difficult to pinpoint the
cause of such anomalies unless techniques like X-ray com-
puted tomography are available.
An important benefit of modeling and simulations is that
they increase our understanding of the mechanism behind
certain phenomena. For instance, when the permeability of
concrete was higher than it should have been, several tests
were conducted. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of the
concrete indicated the cement matrix to contain more air
voids adjacent to the aggregate particles. Computer model-
ing of diffusion (Garboczi and Bentz 1992) was able to show
that the increased air voids could indeed increase the diffu-
sion rate. By knowing this information, low-permeability
concrete could be designed.
Particle packing simulations
Many types of computer simulations have been used in
particle packing studies as reviewed by Barker (1994). One
of the earliest and the simplest is the sequential deposition
of spheres under unidirectional gravitational force (Vischer
and Bolsterli 1972). In particle packing simulations, a parti-
cle system (e.g., powder) with a spread of particle sizes is
closely approximated to a logarithm-normal or Gaussian dis-
tribution and is studied by computer simulated packing of
spheres. The packing density or packing fraction is one of
the most significant outcomes of such a modeling study.
© 2006 NRC Canada
948
In addition to packing fraction, the distribution of the
number of contacts (or coordination number) is considered
to be an important characteristic of the simulated compact.
A quantitative description of the contacts between aggre-
gates becomes a necessity in granular materials because the
load is always transferred as chains through contacts in gran-
ular materials (Dantu 1957). The coordination number indi-
cates the number of particles in contact with a given particle.
In most random packing studies, the distribution of coordi-
nation numbers has been found to be effective in characteriz-
ing the packing geometry and in studying the structural
properties of particle packings (Powell 1980). As noted ear-
lier, the physical methods for determining these contacts,
which include the paint method (Bernal and Mason 1960)
and the optical techniques (Bernal et al. 1970), do not have
the resolution necessary to distinguish between contacts and
near-contacts. To study these contacts and their distributions,
computer simulations are more appropriate.
The effect of size distributions on packing characteristics of
the particles have been studied through physical experiments
(Sohn and Moreland 1968; Dexter and Tanner 1972) and com-
puter simulations (Nolan and Kavanagh 1993). These studies
have typically used logarithm-normal or Gaussian particle-size
distributions with systematic variation of the standard deviation
(or range of particle sizes). These studies showed that the pack-
ing fraction increased as the standard deviation of the particle-
size distribution increased. When computer simulations are
used, a rather narrow particle-size range has to be used. For in-
stance, Nolan and Kavanagh (1993) used a particle-size range
of 0–20, whereas Powell (1980) used sizes from 0.0 to 1.0. The
researchers who used theoretical models have used wider size
distributions. For instance, Bierwagen and Saunders (1974)
used particles of sizes ranging from 0.1 to 10.0, a two-decade
range. Packing aggregate gradations for HMA range from
19.0 mm to less than 0.075 mm, a span of 2.5 decades.
Packing granular materials of wide ranges of particle sizes has
not been reported in the literature.
Special needs for hot-mix asphalt
Applying particle packing simulations to design HMA has
significant potential benefits and associated challenges. Pre-
viously, particle packing techniques have been successfully
applied to cement concrete to maximize the amount of ag-
gregates that can be put in the concrete. HMA differs from
Portland cement concrete, however, in the functionality of its
constituents. Portland cement is stronger and stiffer, with its
modulus and strength being in the same order as those of the
aggregates, which is not the same case with asphalt cement.
In HMA, the primary means of withstanding a compressive
load is by aggregate–aggregate contact, shear loads by ag-
gregate interlock, and tensile stresses by the strength of as-
phalt cement. Thus, the aggregate structure becomes very
important in HMA.
The primary challenge in applying particle packing con-
cepts to HMA stems from the aggregate size distribution or
gradation. The aggregates used in HMA typically have a
19 mm maximum size, and about 5% of the aggregates (by
weight) are finer than 0.075 mm, a span of 2.5 decades. In
such cases, tens of millions of small particles have to be
considered to have a representative number of large aggre-
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 33, 2006
gates in the simulated compact. At the present moment, such
a simulation is not practical, and hence it becomes necessary
to restrict the minimum aggregate size for packing, irrespec-
tive of the actual gradation. This will become clearer during
the case study discussion.
Packing algorithm
The packing algorithm used in this study is similar to that
of Vischer and Bolsterli (1972) and Jullien and Meakin
(1987). The spheres are added to a box sequentially under a
unidirectional gravitational force, and each sphere is rolled
to its stable position. The stable position is defined as that
position where a sphere rests on three contacts. The spheres
are dropped from random locations within the box. The al-
gorithm includes five attempts for each sphere to find its
lowest (minimum-energy) position, which was characterized
by Vischer and Bolsterli as reproducing the effect of vibra-
tion on the settling sphere. The packing fraction or packing
density, defined as the volume occupied by particles per unit
volume of the compact, is calculated on a central core inside
the box to avoid edge effects. Currently, the program can ac-
commodate 25 different particle sizes. It is noted that the
packing model is currently designed to pack aggregates in
the form of solid spheres.
The first step in packing simulation is to validate the
packing program by comparing the results it produces with
the data reported in the literature. To do this, two different
studies were conducted. In the first study, 10 000 spheres
10 mm in diameter were packed in a box of dimensions
200 mm × 200 mm. This set-up had a box size to sphere di-
ameter ratio of 20:1. To avoid edge effects, the outer 10 mm
layer of the box was cut from all sides, and only the inside
core was used for further analysis. Four independent simula-
tions gave a packing fraction of 0.5939 and a standard devia-
tion of 0.0011. In the second experiment, 80 000 spheres
3 mm in diameter were packed in a 120 mm × 120 mm box
to yield a box size to sphere diameter ratio of 40:1. Four in-
dependent simulations yielded a packing fraction of 0.5940
with a standard deviation of 0.0006. By increasing the box
size to sphere diameter ratio from 20:1 to 40:1, the mean
packing fraction changed a little while halving the standard
deviation. These results are comparable to the values re-
ported in the literature, which are generally in the range of
0.58–0.60 for monosized spheres (Vischer and Bolsterli
1972; Powell 1980).
Case study
In an effort to evaluate individual aggregate gradations in
terms of construction characteristics and pavement perfor-
mance, Goode and Lufsey (1962) developed an aggregate
gradation chart on which all maximum-density gradations
can be represented by straight-line plots. This chart can be
especially useful in studying the influence of gradation on
aggregate packing characteristics in terms of voids in min-
eral aggregate (VMA). By using a simple power-law aggre-
gate distribution (eq. [1]), Goode and Lufsey showed that
minimum VMA or maximum densities, irrespective of the
nominal maximum aggregate size, always occur when slope
k equals 0.45. This equation plots as a straight line on a
© 2006 NRC Canada
Shashidhar and Gopalakrishnan
logarithm–logarithm chart with a slope k. The power-law ag-
gregate gradation equation used by Goode and Lufsey is as
follows:
[1] P = 100(d/dmax)k
where P is the total percent passing a given sieve size d, and
dmax is the nominal maximum size of aggregate.
The gradation equation was evaluated for different values
of k (i.e., 0.31, 0.38, 0.45, 0.52, 0.59, and 0.66) by Goode
and Lufsey (1962). The HMA specimens were molded in the
laboratory using the gyratory method (US Army Corps of
Engineers 1962), and the VMA values were determined. The
gyratory compaction has a stronger resemblance to field
compaction than does impact compaction. This means that
the internal structure of specimens compacted with a
gyratory compactor will show a closer resemblance to that
resulting from actual after-construction roadway traffic (Ping
et al. 2003).
In the present study, the packing characteristics of the grada-
tion equation, in terms of packing fraction and distribution of
contacts, were evaluated for the different k values. The specific
objectives were to study the dependence of particle–particle
contacts on aggregate gradation and verify if the results from
the Goode and Lufsey (1962) study could be obtained from
computer simulation.
Experimental
To pack the gradation, the number of particles retained in
each sieve has to be calculated. A maximum size of
13.3 mm was considered throughout as according to the
study by Goode and Lufsey (1962). The gradations consid-
ered in this study are shown on a logarithm–logarithm plot
in Fig. 1. Each particle is considered to be spherical, with di-
ameter equal to the average of the sieve (size) it is retained
in and the next larger sieve. The total number of particles re-
quired for packing each size is approximated based on per-
cent retained on each sieve interval and bulk specific gravity
of the aggregate. Using this procedure, the total number of
particles required to pack the entire gradation exceeds 12
million. In estimating the numbers, the intent was to have at
least five particles of the maximum aggregate size. The
packing was done in a box of size 25 mm × 25 mm. Packing
12 million particles needs considerable computing resources,
and the current packing program could only pack a maxi-
mum of 80 000 particles. For this reason, the aggregate gra-
dation had to be truncated. Three different cases were
considered: (i) 70% of the gradation curve (70% retained
and 30% passing), (ii) 75% of the gradation curve (75% re-
tained and 25% passing), and (iii) 80% of the gradation
curve (80% retained and 20% passing). These three cases
would yield three different minimum particle sizes.
Discussion of results
Packing fraction
The packing fraction is a measure of the denseness of the
packing and is a ratio of the volume of particles packed to
the total volume. This is always a fraction less than unity. In
terms of aggregate packing, packing fraction is the fraction
of voids in a compacted sample. It is related to the VMA
949
Fig. 1. Aggregate gradations in a logarithm–logarithm chart
(Goode and Lufsey 1962).
such that a VMA of 14 is equivalent to a packing fraction of
0.86. The packing fraction results from the simulation runs
are compared with the results obtained by Goode and Lufsey
(1962) in Fig. 2. The simulation results do not agree well
with those of Goode and Lufsey. In all three cases, the maxi-
mum packing fraction is achieved at different k values ex-
cept for the 75% gradation case, where the maximum
packing fraction occurs at k = 0.45, consistent with the find-
ings of Goode and Lufsey. It is noted that the current pack-
ing model simulates aggregates as hard spheres and
therefore there is a limitation on the maximum achievable
packing fraction. The HMA specimens used in the Goode
and Lufsey (1962) study were molded in the laboratory us-
ing the gyratory method (US Army Corps of Engineers
1962) with randomly shaped aggregates, and the VMA val-
ues were determined. Also, it is noted that all the aggregates
could not be packed due to the current limitations of the
packing model, and therefore the aggregate gradations had
to be truncated. Thus, it is possible that a completely differ-
ent packing structure evolved in considering the truncated
particle gradation.
To test the suitability of using the hard-sphere packing
model to model crushed aggregates, however, a new case
study was performed, in which the aggregate gradations con-
sisting only of coarse aggregates (i.e., 0% passing 4.75 mm)
were packed using the packing program. The results from
the simulation runs were then compared with the results ob-
tained by Brown et al. (1998), who dry-rodded the coarse
aggregates in the laboratory and studied the VCADRC. Brown
et al. studied the dry-rodded method in an effort to deter-
mine when stone-on-stone contact exists in the coarse aggre-
gate fraction of SMA. Note that the packing fraction, in this
case, would be equal to (100 – VCADRC)/100. The original
gradations used by Brown et al. were used in the simulation
runs. The simulation runs gave a packing fraction of 0.6, and
Brown et al. reported a value of 0.608 (i.e., VCADRC =
39.2%).
Brown et al. (1998) indicated that VCADRC for most ag-
gregates is in the range of 37%–42% (i.e., packing fractions
in the range of 0.58–0.63) and that different types of coarse
aggregates having the same gradation will provide similar
VCA values. To test this, nine different coarse aggregate
© 2006 NRC Canada
950
Fig. 2. Comparison of laboratory packing fractions (PF = (100 –
VMA)/100) obtained by Goode and Lufsey (1962) with those
from computer simulations.
gradations from various original studies were considered
(Brown and Mallick 1995; Brown et al. 1998; Abdulshafi et
al. 1999). The packing fractions obtained from the simula-
tion runs were in the range of 0.600–0.646 (Gopalakrishnan
and Shashidhar 2000). These results are encouraging and in-
dicate that the hard-sphere packing model performs satisfac-
torily when particles above a certain minimum size (in this
case, 4.75 mm) are considered. More research is required to
establish the critical minimum particle size, however.
Distribution of contacts
The transmission of force within particulate materials oc-
curs only through the interparticle contacts, but each contact
force is highly sensitive to the local arrangement of the sur-
rounding particles and boundary loading conditions. Because
of this strong dependence on particle arrangement, contact
forces will usually be distributed in a complex, non-uniform
manner, even when an isotropic and homogeneous assembly
of particles is subjected to uniform loading (Antony et al.
2005). This complex behavior is revealed in photoelastic
studies of two-dimensional discs reported by several investi-
gators (e.g., Drescher and Jong 1972; Behringer et al. 1999;
Hartley and Behringer 2003). These studies have revealed
that even a uniformly applied load is transmitted by rela-
tively rigid, heavily stressed chains of particles, which form
a relatively sparse network of contacts, carrying greater than
average normal contact forces.
The distribution of normal contact forces within a medium
falls into one of two categories, namely the “weak force
chains” and “strong force chains.” The weak force chains are
comprised of contacts that carry less than average contact
force, and the strong force chains carry a greater than aver-
age force. Sliding occurs predominantly within the weak
chains, and these contacts primarily contribute to the mean
stress (Antony et al. 2005).
In HMA, loads are mainly transmitted through the aggre-
gate skeleton at a higher temperature to demonstrate its
granular behavior but are transmitted through both aggregate
contacts and binder at a lower temperature to demonstrate its
continuum behavior. By the skeleton view, the average num-
ber of contacts for coarse aggregates, the contact normal dis-
tribution, the branch vector distribution, and the particle
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 33, 2006
orientation distribution are relevant; by the continuum view,
mean solid path, the air void surface area, the damage ten-
sor, and the local void volume fraction and its gradient are
relevant (Wang et al. 2004). Using photoelastic methods and
DEM simulations, Shashidhar et al. (2000) demonstrated
that HMA behaves as a granular material (at relatively high
temperatures, the binder is soft and has little restraint on the
aggregates) and that applied loads are transmitted through
force chains just as in unbound granular materials.
By the aggregate skeleton view of HMA, some of the rele-
vant parameters that describe the HMA skeleton include the
average number of contacts per particle of coarse aggregates
forming the skeleton, the contact normal distribution (num-
ber of contacts in different orientations), and the particle ori-
entation distribution (number of particles with their particle
orientations in certain ranges) (Wang et al. 2004). This paper
focuses on studying the distribution of contacts for each par-
ticle size in the packing assembly.
The approach taken here is to measure the distribution of
contacts for any given particle size in the compact. The dis-
tribution of contacts was found to be Gaussian with a mean
and standard deviation. Returning to the discussion of the
original case study, Fig. 3 illustrates the Gaussian contact
distribution curves (normalized by the total number of parti-
cles for a given size) when 70% of the gradation curve was
packed with a k value of 0.52. Similar distributions were ob-
tained for all other cases. Figure 3 shows that the distribu-
tions are narrower for smaller size particles and broader for
larger size particles. This is expected because a larger parti-
cle can be surrounded by a range of small particles and
therefore a wider range of contacts, whereas a smaller particle
will fit into the void space produced by a few larger particles
and therefore fewer contacts. Thus, the mean number of con-
tacts increases as the particle size increases. All the curves are
truncated at three contacts due the constraint in the packing
algorithm, which seeks a minimum of three contacts before
the particle is considered to be in a stable position.
Also, one can observe that the data get noisier as the par-
ticle size increases because there are fewer larger particles in
the packing assembly than smaller particles. Therefore, the
smaller sizes have better statistics than larger particles. All
these distributions were fit with a Gaussian distribution and
the mean and standard deviations estimated. The fits were
excellent, with R2 values greater than 0.99 for smaller parti-
cles. As the particle size increased, however, noise in the
data caused poorer fits. The fits that had R2 values less than
0.90 were not considered for further analysis.
The mean number of contacts is plotted in Fig. 4 as a
function of particle size for different k values. Similar infor-
mation is shown in Fig. 5 for the standard deviation of con-
tacts. Upon normalizing the size of particles (d) by the
minimum particle size (dmin), a single curve is obtained re-
lating the mean number of contacts to (normalized) particle
size, d/dmin, as shown in Fig. 6. A similar trend was obtained
for standard deviation, as seen in Fig. 7. Similar results were
obtained for all other cases, indicating the possibility of de-
veloping mathematical models relating the mean coordina-
tion number and contact spread (standard deviation) to
particle size in a simulated compact, irrespective of aggre-
gate gradation. The following regression models were estab-
lished:
© 2006 NRC Canada
Shashidhar and Gopalakrishnan
Fig. 3. Distribution of contacts (70% gradation packed, k =
0.52). The different particle sizes (in mm) are given in the box
along with the symbols used in the graph.
Fig. 4. Mean number of contacts versus particle size (d).
Fig. 5. Standard deviation of contacts versus particle size (d).
[2] mean = A + B (d /d min) + C (d /d min) 2
[3] standard deviation = D + E (d /d min) + F (d /d min) 2
where the regression coefficients A–F are given in Table 1
for selected k values. Using these regression models, it is
951
Fig. 6. Mean number of contacts versus normalized particle size
(d/dmin).
Fig. 7. Standard deviation of contacts versus normalized particle
size (d/dmin).
possible to estimate what the number of contacts would be if
the gradation were packed down to smaller size particles.
Due to limitations in computing capacity, the packing model
could only pack to a minimum size of 0.6 mm for k = 0.52
aggregate gradation. Using the regression models for mean
and standard deviation of contacts, however, it is possible to
estimate the number of contacts in packing the entire grada-
tion. For instance, if an aggregate gradation with a maxi-
mum size of 13.3 mm and a minimum size of 0.075 mm
were packed at k = 0.52, a 2.36 mm particle would have a
mean number of contacts of 914 and a standard deviation of
8.55. This is certainly a large number of contacts, and it is
not known if all contacts carry equal importance or if some
are more important than others from the viewpoint of load
transmission.
The mechanical properties of the packing are dependent
on how many of these contacts actually transmit force when
the packed assembly is stressed. Travers et al. (1986)
showed through photoelastic experiments on a two-
dimensional packing of cylinders that only two or three con-
tacts seemed to transmit load, even though there seemed to
be six contacts on average. Therefore, it would be useful to
formulate an appropriate criterion based on the coordination
number to qualify each contact as active (or load-bearing) or
© 2006 NRC Canada
952
Table 1. Regression coefficients for mean and standard deviation
of contacts.
Regression model
coefficient k = 0.38 k = 0.52 k = 0.59
A 2.585017 2.400044 1.46225
B 0.640355 0.725284 1.58623
C 0.917728 0.897473 0.73191
D –0.428106 –0.046100 –0.10004
E 1.238840 0.861960 0.88174
F –0.058550 –0.023970 –0.03134
passive (or space-filling) in load transmission. This is dis-
cussed in more detail by Gopalakrishnan and Shashidhar
(2006).
Future research
Some of the important parameters of interest that are re-
lated to the study of contacts such as the effect of internal
friction angle and the orientation of contact planes were not
considered in this study due to the limited scope of this re-
search. The angle of internal friction of loose granular mate-
rials is measured by their angle of repose, which is a unique
material property of the grains (Abriak 1999; Vallejo and
Mawby 2000). Samples with coarse sand grains have a
higher friction angle compared with samples totally com-
posed of fines. The simplest method of determining the an-
gle of internal friction of mixtures is the direct shear test
using a Casagrande shear box apparatus.
A study of the orientation of contact planes can explain
the inherent and induced anisotropies in the compact. For
most granular materials the manner in which the sample was
formed and consolidated influences the yield locus, since it
introduces anisotropy, even in a material that is initially iso-
tropic. Induced anisotropy is the material anisotropy intro-
duced into the sample by the consolidation procedure, and
inherent anisotropy stems from the shape of the particles and
the way the bedding was formed (Molenda and Horabik
2004). Using DEM simulations, Antony et al. (2005) per-
formed a detailed analysis on the force-transmission charac-
teristics of granular materials at microscopic level and
presented a connection between the directional orientation of
force networks and the invariants of the macroscopic stress
tensor: the nonsphere systems were able to build up a strongly
anisotropic network of strong force-transmitting contacts.
Aggregate particles in an HMA mixture have different
shapes, surface texture and friction, and orientations, which
make the aggregate contact more complicated. Chang and
Meegoda (1999) proposed a micromechanical model for sim-
ulating HMA based on DEM which allowed for aggregate–
binder–aggregate contact and aggregate–aggregate contact.
Until now, a vast majority of research studies related to
micromechanical modeling of HMA microstructure has been
limited to two dimensions because of computational con-
straints (You and Buttlar 2004).
As mentioned previously, Shashidhar et al. (2000) have
shown that load transmission in HMA takes place in the
form of force chains and that particle-to-particle contact ex-
ists in the formation of these chains. Significant questions
still exist as to whether some contacts are more important
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 33, 2006
than others and about the function of fine aggregates in load
transmission. A study of particle–particle contacts in the
simulated compact will be useful in answering these ques-
tions. The current study is meant to lay the foundations for
investigating this research area further.
The knowledge of the relationship between the aggregate
structure and the mechanical properties will enable one to
engineer the pavements to have the appropriate aggregate
structure to maximize performance. This approach is very
similar to that used when developing materials with desired
properties (designer materials), such as high thermal conduc-
tivity materials for electronic substrates or materials with
high toughness. The ability to tailor and optimize material
attributes, thus manufacturing designer materials, is increas-
ingly being realized in structural systems (Chong and
Garboczi 2002).
By developing the relationship between aggregate structure
and performance, potential approaches to change the aggre-
gate structure to improve the performance could be devel-
oped. Masad and Button (2004) have summarized the
experimental and analysis methods used in characterizing and
quantifying the aggregate structure of HMA which include
two-dimensional imaging techniques and three-dimensional
nondestructive imaging techniques such as X-ray computed
tomography (Shashidhar 1999).
The nature and distribution of interparticle contacts in
computer-simulated compacts with a wide particle size
range, similar to that found in HMA, were discussed in this
paper. The results have to be validated using physical experi-
ments and discrete element techniques.
Summary and conclusions
In this research, particle packing simulation concepts were
applied to the study of aggregate structure in hot-mix asphalt
(HMA). Previous research by the authors showed that the
changes in HMA aggregate structure due to compaction
could be quantified through two-dimensional image-analysis
techniques and computer simulations. In this study, the ag-
gregates were modeled as hard spheres, and some typical ag-
gregate gradations used in HMA were packed using a
computer program. The packing characteristics of the com-
pact were studied in terms of packing fraction and distribu-
tion of contacts.
A case study was presented to illustrate some of the sig-
nificant outcomes resulting from the application of particle
packing simulation concepts to the study of aggregate struc-
ture in HMA. Due to computational limitations, the entire
gradation could not be packed. The packing fractions
achieved using the simulations did not agree with the labora-
tory test results (in terms of voids in mineral aggregate from
the compacted HMA specimens) obtained by previous re-
searchers. A related case study to test the suitability of using
the hard-sphere packing model to model packing of crushed
aggregates showed satisfactory results when particles above
a certain minimum size are considered. The coordination
number of any size particle in the packing was found to be a
Gaussian distribution whose mean and standard deviation
can be estimated using regression models.
Future research should focus on deriving an appropriate
criterion based on the coordination number to qualify each
© 2006 NRC Canada
Shashidhar and Gopalakrishnan
contact as active (or load-bearing) or passive (or space-
filling) in load transmission. Future research efforts will also
focus on applying suitable contact mechanics principles to
introduce the asphalt binder (or mastic) at the particle–parti-
cle contacts and apply this model to virtual specimens re-
constructed from nondestructive images of pavement core
sections.
It is recognized that the results of this study as presented
here are limited in terms of practical utility. The authors be-
lieve, however, that the application of particle packing simu-
lation concepts to the study of aggregate structure in HMA
in conjunction with the recent advances in X-ray tomogra-
phy imaging techniques and DEM simulations have tremen-
dous potential to help us develop a deeper understanding of
the HMA aggregate structure, develop and optimize the vari-
ous parameters that describe the aggregate structure, and re-
late these parameters to the performance of pavements in a
scientific way. This will provide the foundations to building
more durable and long-lasting pavements.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the efforts of Dr.
Xibing Dou, Senior Research Engineer at the Turner–Fair-
banks Highway Research Center, in developing the computer
simulation packing program described in this paper. The sec-
ond author wishes to acknowledge the National Highway In-
stitute for financial assistance through the Eisenhower
Graduate Research Fellowship.
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