Introduction

Every construction project is intended to result in a finished structure which will perform certain functions in
conformance with the project design requirements.

Construction process - initiated when a person or organization, which may be public or private, decides to improve
the land with permanent or semipermanent additions.

Need for Materials with various qualities

Footing
a. Distribute the weight of the building to the soil
b. Resist cracking despite uneven soil settlement
c. Resist corrosive attack from soil and water

Basement Floor
a. Provide a smooth surface
b. Resist wear
c. Resist cracking despite upward water pressure or uneven soil settlement
d. Keep moisture out
e. Resist corrosive attack from soil and water

Basement Floor
a. Support the rest of the building
b. Resist lateral side pressure from the earth
c. Keep moisture out
d. Resist corrosive attack from soil and water

Other Floors and Ceilings

a. Provide a smooth surface
b. Resist wear
c. Support furniture and people without sagging excessively or breaking
d. Provide a satisfactory appearance
e. Clean easily
f. Insulate against noise transmission

Outside walls
a. Support floors and roof
b. Resist lateral wind pressure
c. Provide a satisfactory appearance inside and out
d. Insulate against noise and heat transmission
e. Keep moisture out

Outside Walls
a. Support floors and roof
b. Provide a satisfactory appearance
c. Insulate against noise transmission

Outside Walls
a. Keep moisture out
b. Support snow and other weights
c. Resist wind pressure and wind uplift
d. Provide a satisfactory appearance
e. Insulate against noise and heat transmission
Selecting Materials - A designer is selected who, among other things, is responsible for selection of all construction
materials to achieve the desired performance within the budget cost.

THE PROCESS OF SELECTION MAY INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING STEPS:

1. Analysis of the problem (e.g., performance required, useful life required, allowable cost, and maintenance
expense).
2. Comparison of available materials or products with the criteria of step 1.
3. Design or selection of type of material, size, shape, finish, method of preserving, and method of fastening in place.

Sustainability - concept of sustainability in building design and construction has grown out of concerns about better
utilizing material and energy resources, enhancing the environment, and even creating jobs and lowering construction
and operating costs.

The fundamentals of sustainability are formed around several related concepts:

● First, we must design and construct new and renovated buildings through the most efficient use of finite
material, energy, and labor resources.
● Second, we must seek to operate these facilities in a way that significantly reduces energy consumption and
the production of green house gases which can contribute to climate change.
● Third, we need to choose construction materials which can be recycled and reused when facilities must be
reconstructed.

Longevity - In selecting materials today, designers must be aware of their appropriate use and inherent
characteristics that will promote longevity of the buildings where they will be used.

Energy Efficiency - All of the materials described in this text have properties relative to their energy footprint.
Reusability and Recycling - All of the construction products described can be recycled to create new materials.

The future of sustainability

● Water Efficiency
● Indoor environmental quality
● Durable and maintainable design
● Energy efficiency
● Eco friendly materials use

Properties of materials

Thermal expansion - When a piece of material is heated evenly, it expands, each unit length growing by a specific
percentage.
- All building materials adapt to temperature changes by becoming larger in hotter climates and shrinking in
colder ones.

Thermal Conductivity - A building used by people must be kept warmer than the surrounding air in cold climates and
cooler than the surrounding air in hot climates.
- Heat flows to a cooler area much like water flows to a lower level.

Strength and Stress

- All construction materials must resist loads or forces.
- A force is a push or pull that has a value and a direction.
Dead loads - include the weight of the structural elements as well as permanent equipment such as boilers and
air-conditioning units.

Live loads - are those imposed loads which may or may not be present and include occupants, furniture, wind,
earthquake, and other variable load conditions.
Deformation - means a change in the outside dimensions of an object caused by a force.

Modulus of Elasticity
Strain - is directly proportional to the stress that causes it over a considerable range for many materials.

Elastic Strain -> Plastic Strain

Yield Point - is the lowest stress at which an increase in strain occurs with no increase in stress.

Inspection and testing

Inspection - means examining a product or observing an operation to determine whether or not it is satisfactory.

Inspection and tests can be categorized according to purpose as follows:

1. Quality assurance or acceptance
2. Quality Control
3. Research and Development

Tests performed on samples of material from the same source do not yield exactly the same results for each sample.
There are two reasons for this:
1. No material is perfectly homogenous
2. The testing methods, although performed according to standard procedures, cannot be duplicated exactly
each time.

Standards - The designer or builder may desire any number of properties in the material she is going to use.
Testing method - is a specification that outlines how to perform a test and measure results.

UTM - Universal testing machine

● 1837: James Thompson invents an early UTM for testing the tensile strength of wire.
● 1880: Tinius Olsen invents the first true universal testing machine.
● 1920s: UTMs become more widely used in industry.
● 1950s: UTMs become more automated.
● 1970s: Digital UTMs are introduced.
● 1990s: Computerized UTMs are introduced.
● 2000s: UTMs become increasingly sophisticated and versatile.

UTM - is a versatile machine that can be used to test the mechanical properties of a wide variety of materials.

Components of UTM
● Loading Unit - controls how the test specimen is set up and how much force is applied.
- Load Frame - Single or double support
 - Upper and lower crosshead -
•Upper Crosshead- to clamp one end of the test specimen.
•Lower Crosshead- movable crosshead whose screws can be loosened for height adjustment and
tightened.
- Elongation Scale - Measures the relative movement of the lower and upper table
- Table - to place the specimen, used for the compression test.

● Control Unit - provides the adjustments in load application and the associated test result.
- Primary parts
■ Hydraulic Power Unit - this unit consists of an oil pump that provides non-pulsating oil flow
into the main cylinder of the load unit.
■ Load Measuring Unit - The pendulum dynamometer in this device travels with the flow of
non-pulsating oil in a tiny cylinder.
■ Control Devices - the controls could be hydraulic or electronic. Switches are used by
electric control devices to move the crossheads and turn the unit on and off.
-
2 main column types
● Single column - for low force testing
● Dual Column - for medium to high force testing

Materials that can be used by UTM:

1. Concrete
2. Steel
3. Winches
4. Steel ropes
5. Cables
6. Springs
7. Steel wires
8. Slings
9. Links
10. Rope
11. Chains

Functions of UTM

Tensile test - used to find out how strong a material is and also how much it can be stretched before it breaks.

Compression Test - used to determine a material’s strength and deformation behavior under compressive (pressing)
load.

Adhesion test (peeling test) - used to pull apart two materials that have been bounded together.

Bending Test/fresuaral - used to measure the behavior of materials subjected to simple beam loading,

Hysteresis test - the energy required to stretch and compress a material.

Pull out test - to evaluate the bond between strength between two materials.
General Properties of Materials

Specific Weight - is the weight per unit volume of a material

- N/m^3
- Also known as unit weight

Ultra-lightweight aggregate - less than 500 kg/m3, including expanded perlite and foam plastic.

Lightweight aggregate - is between 500 and 1120 kg/m3. Examples of lightweight aggregates include cinder,
blast-furnace slag, volcanic pumice, and expanded clay.

Normal-weight aggregate - a unit weight of 1520–1680 kg/m3 is classified as normal-weight aggregate. Sand, gravel,
and crushed rock belong to this category and are most widely used.

Heavy-weight aggregate- greater than 2100 kg/m3, it is classified as heavy-weight aggregate. Materials used as
heavy-weight aggregate are iron ore, crushed steel pieces, and magnesite limonite.
Water Absorption - the amount of water absorbed by a material
- calculated as the ratio of the weight of water absorbed to the weight of the dry material.
- It is expressed in % of weight of dry material.

Abrasion - is a wear mechanism that is caused by the inclusion of hard particles between two sliding or rolling
surfaces.

Abrasion Testing - determines the relative quality, toughness, and durability of mineral aggregates subjected to
impact and abrasion.
- Reducing the risk of failure and related warranty costs
- Optimizing limited resources
Abrasion tester
- Micro-deval test - an alternative to L.A. Abrasion

Density - a measure of how heavy an object is for a given size

- the mass of material per unit volume.
- p=m/v
- kg/m^3 or lb/ft^3
- The density of solids affects strength, hardness, and brittleness, making them suitable for various
applications.

Uniformity of aggregates - Aggregates generally occupy 70 to 80% of the volume of concrete and therefore have a
significant effect on its properties.
- Strength of concrete and mix design are independent of the composition of aggregate, but durability may be
affected.
- Strength & texture - affect workability of fresh concrete.
- The ideal aggregate would be spherical and smooth allowing good mixing and decreasing
interaction between particles.
- Shape and texture of coarse aggregates affects the strength of the concrete mix.

Apparatus - Concrete

● Core Drill - design to remove a cylinder of material, much like a hole saw.
● Extruder - to thrust out;force or press out
● Portable Rock Shear Box assembly - used to determine the strength and slope stability of rock size.
● Climate Chamber - used to test the effects of specified environmental conditions.
● Geological hammer - used for splitting breaking rock.
● Compression testing machine - used to perform compression tests on concrete beam specimens.
● Flexural testing machine - used to perform flexural tests on concrete beam specimen
● Compressometer Static modulus of elasticity - used to determine the strain and deformation characteristics
of concrete specimens.
● Simrup Apparatus - designed to measure the tensile strength of concrete beam specimens.
● Drum Type Mixer - suitable for field mixes of medium strength concrete.
● Slump cone - for the determination of the consistency, the medium and high workability of fresh concrete.
● Vebe’s consistometer - Vebe consistometer method is based on the same principle of the simple slump cone
test method, for the determination of the workability of concrete.
● Compacting factor apparatus - designed to undertake a more precise and sensitive test procedure than the
simple slump test.
● K-Slump test - to determine the degree of compaction and the workability of fresh concrete.
● Walz Consistometer - to measure the consistency of fresh concrete.
● Flow Table - used to determine the workability of concrete.
● Kelly Ball apparatus - It is used to determine the workability of fresh concrete.
● Concrete Workability meter - the concrete workability meter (also known as plastometer) is designed to test
concrete for dynamic workability.
● Plasticity meter - used for quick and easy measurement of the plasticity of mixtures especially concrete, and
so to detect rapidly any excess of water.
● Concrete Penetrometer - used to determine the setting time of the mortar fraction in concrete mixes with the
slump greater than zero, by testing mortar sieved from mix.
● Air entrainment meter - it records directly the percentage of air enclosed in freshly mixed concrete by
operating according to the air pressure principle.
 ● Unit weight measure - used to determine the weight per cubic meter of freshly mixed and compacted
concrete.
● Joisel apparatus - used to separate the various elements of the fresh concrete such as cement, sand, and
aggregates
● Ram (Rapid analysis machine) - used for the determination of cement content in fresh concrete, coarse and
fine aggregate, fly ash and GGBF slag content can also be determined.
● Moulds - used in molding
● Vibrating tables - used for the compaction of concrete specimens in the laboratory.
● Specimen grinding machine - designed to grind and polish cubic and cylindrical specimens of concrete,
rocks, and natural stones.
● Curing tanks - used for concrete specimens.
● Core drilling machines - design to remove a cylinder of material much like a hole saw.
● Specimen cutting machine - used to cut concrete specimens and any type of construction materials like
blocks, tiles, pipes, rocks cores etc.
● Ultrasonic pulse velocity tester - to measure materials characteristics by using ultrasonic pulses.
● Automatic concrete water permeability apparatus - designed to carry out water permeability tests on cubic
concrete specimens max.
● Hydraulic press - is a device using a hydraulic cylinder to generate a compressive force. It uses the
hydraulic equivalent of a mechanical fever.
● Rapid Chloride ion penetration meter - Like the water permeability test, this is also one of the test to
determine the durability of concrete.

Metals & Alloy

Physical metallurgy - is the science of making useful products out of metals.

Grain Structure

Grain - is a small region of a metal, having a given and continuous crystal lattice orientation.
- Henry Clifton Sorby

3 Important facts
1. Within each grain the atoms are arranged in a regular lattice
2. The orientation of the crystal lattice differs from grain to grain
3. At each grain boundary there is a line of mismatch in the atomic arrangement.

Crystal Structure of Metals -

Most metals and alloys crystallize in one of three very common structures:
● body-centered cubic (bcc) - iron (below 910°C), chromium, molybdenum, niobium, vanadium.
● Hexagonal close packed (hcp) - magnesium, zinc, cadmium, cobalt, titanium;
● cubic close packed (ccp, also called face centered cubic, fcc) - aluminium, copper, nickel, iron (above
910°C), lead, silver, gold;

Face-centred cubic structure:

(a) location of atomic sites and
(b) view on XYZ plane showing close packing.

The body-centred cubic structure:

(a) expanded unit cell and
(b) sphere model of unit cell

The energy difference between different structures is often very small and the crystal structure that has the lowest
energy at one temperature may not have the lowest energy at another. These various forms are called allotropes.

Solutions and Compounds

There are two principal classes of solid solutions. In one, small atoms, such as carbon and nitrogen, fit into the
spaces between the larger atoms:

● Interstitial solid solution - is formed by small atoms of a solute filling in the empty spaces between the atoms
of a solvent in a crystal lattice.
 ● Substitutional solid solution - is a mixture of two types of atoms in which one atom can replace the other type
of atom

Mechanical Properties of Metals

Stress-Strain Behaviour

Stress strain curve - the stress and its corresponding strain values are plotted.
- are an extremely important graphical measure of a material’s mechanical properties.
- the most common used form of tension test uses an arrangement in which the test piece is elongated in
series with a device to measure the load generated by stretching.

Tensile Strength - is the maximum amount of tensile stress a material can withstand before it fails or breaks.

Ductility - The reduction in cross-sectional area of the test piece at the site of fracture, and the total elongation at
fracture,are both conventionally used as measures of ductility.

Plasticity - is the propensity of a material to undergo enduring deformation under load when compressed,

Cast Irons - used in a variety of application, the major consumption being in pipes and fittings for services

White cast iron - The carbon here is combined as hard brittle iron carbide, Fe3C, and the cast iron overall is hard and
very brittle.
- Its main use is for applications where high resistance to wear and abrasion is required.

Grey Cast iron - old cast iron structures are almost certainly of this type and it is still the form of cast iron most
commonly met.

Spheroidal Graphite, Nodular or Ductile Irons - The flakes in grey cast iron act as internal notches and the metal is
brittle in tension.

Malleable Irons - used to be produced from white irons by annealing which results, again, in nodules of graphite
Joining of Cast irons - All cast irons are extremely difficult to weld, the welds are unreliable and of poor strength.

Steel - making involves some very complex thermochemistry

Structural steels - are processed into the required section shaped and lengths by hot rolling and their microstructures
are effectively those of a normalized steel.

Forming of Metals
Casting - most common metals can be produced by melting and casting into moulds.

Hot working - working of metals and alloys by rolling, forging, extrusion etc, depends upon plasticity which is usually
much greater at high temperatures, ex. Temperatures above their recrystallization temperature.

Cold Working - because of their cold ductility, many metals and alloys can be cold worked, that is to say, shaped at
temperatures below the crystallization temperature of the alloy.

Joining - used increasingly for joining metal parts, the commonest methods are still welding, brazing, soldering or by
mechanical fasteners, such as rivets and bolts.

Welding - it is beyond the scope of this book to list the various welding processes that are available.

Two following ideal requirements:

1. There should be complete continuity between the parts to be joined and every part of the joint should be
indistinguishable from the parent metal. In practice this is not always achieved, although welds giving satisfactory
performance can be made.
2. The joining material should have metallurgical properties that are no worse than those of the parent metal. This is
largely the concern of the supplier of welding consumables though poor welding practice can significantly affect the
final product.
Brazing, Soldering and Gluing - in some cases gluing, involve joining by means of a thin film of a material which has a
melting temperature lower than that of the parent material and which, when melted, flows into the joint, often by
capillary action, to form a thin film which subsequently solidifies.

Pinning - Some materials (such as cast iron) do not lend themselves to joining by welding. Gluing and brazing are
valid options but require thought about the joint design.

Oxidation and Corrosion

Oxidation - a process in which a chemical substance changes because of the addition of oxygen.

Corrosion - when a refined metal is naturally converted to amore stable form such as its oxide, hydroxide or sulphide
state this leads to deterioration of the materials.

Dry oxidation - earth’s atmosphere is an oxidizing one, and of the metal only gold and silver are widely found in the
native.

Wet Corrosion - occurs in the presence of a liquid containing ions an electrolyte.

- Crevice corrosion
- Erosion corrosion

3 requirements all easy in theory but difficult in practice.

1. Understand metal's working environment, including pollution, corrosion sources, and conditions.
2.Consider design life, considering the time before major maintenance, and inspect and replace components based
on their expected lifespan.
3. Select the most appropriate control method based on long-term, least annual cost, considering payback, rate of
return, and discounted cash flow.

Protection against corrosion

Design - Corrosion occurs at ambient temperatures due to moisture, so surfaces should be exposed to minimal
moisture and dry quickly.

Isolation from the environment - This is done by applying one or more protective coatings to a suitably prepared
surface. Some metallic coatings simply form a protective barrier, e.g. nickel or chromium on steel.

Cathodic Protection - been quite widely used in marine environments, especially on offshore oil rigs.

Bituminous Materials

Bituminous materials - are dark brown or black, semi-solid or liquid, thermoplastic mixtures of hydrocarbons derived
from natural or synthetic processes in which hydrocarbon mixtures have lost their volatile components leaving a
denser residue.
- Is generally taken to include all materials consisting of aggregate bound with either bitumen or tar.

Bitumen - used in roofing materials and as a protective/waterproof coating.

Tar - in road building materials began to grow significantly in the UK just after the turn of the century following the
advent of the pneumatic tyre and the motor vehicle.
- The benefits of using tar were quickly realized and a range of ‘coated stone’ materials, or ‘tarmacadams’,
were developed.

FOUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENT CHARACTERISTICS OF ASPHALT AND MACADAMS

● Asphalts - rely on their dense, stiff mortar for strength and stiffness.
● Macadams - rely on the stability of the aggregate through its grading.

Structure of Bituminous materials

Constituents of bituminous materials

● Bituminous materials consist of a graded aggregate bound together with bitumen.
 ● flexible and soft and is particularly susceptible to temperature change.
● may be supplied in a number of forms either to facilitate the mixing and laying process or to provide a
particular performance. may be supplied in a number of forms either to facilitate the mixing and laying
process or to provide a particular performance.

Sources
Natural Asphalts - petroleum by geological forces, mineral aggregate, pure bitumen to bitumen-impregnated rocks ,
bituminous sands.

Refinery Bitumen - residual material left after the fractional distillation of crude oil, major source of bitumen in the UK,
asphaltic crudes

Manufacture - volatility decreasing and viscosity increasing as the temperature rises, distillation process, the extent to
which the heavier oils have been removed.

Chemistry and Molecular Structure - complex colloidal system of hydrocarbons and their derivatives which is soluble
in trichloroethylene
- It may be subdivided into the following main fractions:
● Carbenes - fraction insoluble in carbon tetrachloride;
● Asphaltenes – fraction insoluble in light aliphatic hydrocarbon solvent, e.g. heptane;
● Maltenes – fraction soluble in heptane.
● Two fractions predominate and the maltenes may be further subdivided into resins (that part
adsorbed on an active powder such as Fuller’s earth) and oils.

- Asphaltenes have the higher molecular weight

- Maltenes contain lower molecular weight versions of asphaltenes called resins and a range of hydrocarbon
groups known as ‘oils’ including olefins, naphthenes and paraffins
- Colloidal system
- Micelles in a continuum of maltenes

Types of bitumen

Penetration grades - are produced with a range of viscosities and are known as penetration grade bitumens.
- term derives from the test which is used to characterize them according to hardness.
- The range of penetration grades for road bitumens is from 15 to 450, although the most commonly used are
in the range 50 to 200.

Oxidized bitumens - may be further processed by air blowing.

- consists of introducing air under pressure into a soft bitumen under controlled temperature conditions.
- The asphaltene content increases at the expense of the maltene content, resulting in harder bitumens which
are also less ductile and less temperature-susceptible.

Cutbacks - Penetration grade bitumen is thermoplastic.

- More or less solid and to enable it to be used for road construction
- Dilution in a volatile oil.

Emulsion - a two-phase system consisting of two immiscible liquids, one being dispersed as fine globules within the
other.
- Consists of discrete globules of bitumen dispersed within a continuous phase of water,
- Mixed and laid
- Schematic diagram of charges on bitumen droplets

The stability of an emulsion depends on a number of factors as follows:

1. The quantity and type of emulsifer present. - Anionic emulsions require substantial water loss before they break,
whereas cationic emulsions break by physicochemical action before much evaporation. The more free emulsifier ions
there are in the continuous phase, the easier it is for the negatively charged aggregate surface to be satisfied without
attracting the bitumen globules.
2. Rate of water loss by evaporation.- This in turn depends on ambient temperature, humidity and wind speed as well
as rate and method of application.
3. The quantity of bitumen. Increasing the bitumen content will increase the breaking rate.
4.. Size of bitumen globules. The smaller their size, the slower will be the breaking rate.
5. Mechanical forces. The greater the mixing friction or, in the case of surface dressing, the rolling and traffic action,
the quicker the emulsion will break.

Aggregates -
Aggregate
● The bulk of bituminous materials
● 92% for a wearing course asphalt
● 96% for an open-textured macadam
● Strength and stiffness of bituminous mixtures.
● Obtained from natural sources:
-Sand
-Gravel or Crushed rock
● Slag
● Blast furnace Slag
● Inert FIllers
● In concrete both the aggregate and the hardened cement paste are relatively stiff, in a bituminous mix, the
bitumen is very soft compared to the aggregate.
● Role of the aggregate in determining mix stiffness and strength is more important in bituminous mixtures

Viscosity of Emultion
● applied by spray.
● very sensitive for values greater than about 60 percent.

Three size ranges are recognized in aggregates for bituminous mixes

○ Coarse material is retained on a 2.36mm sieve

○ Fine material passes 2.36mm but is retained on the 75μm sieve
○ Filler is the material passing 75μm.

Properties
● Have sufficient strength to resist the action of rolling during construction.
● resistant to abrasion and polishing
● Skid-resistant surface

Strength of Aggregate is assessed in 2 ways:

● Resistance to crushing
● Resistance to impact

Skid resistance of a road surface - provided largely by the aggregate exposed at the surface.

2 components
1. Macrotexture - overall road surface roughness which arises from the extent to which there are spaces
between aggregate particles.
2. Microtexture - surface texture of individual particles varies according to the type of aggregate.

Viscosity deformation of bituminous material

Viscosity - is the property that retards flow so that, when a force is applied to the liquid

- Sol-type bitumens - depends on the relative amounts of the asphaltenes and maltenes decreasing as the
asphaltene content reduces.
- Gel-type bitumens - higher and dependent upon the extent of the aggregation.

The asphaltenes exert a strong influence on viscosity in three (3) ways:

1. The viscosity increases as the asphaltene content increases.
2. The shape of the asphaltene particles governs the extent of the change in viscosity.
3. The asphaltenes may tend to aggregate, and the greater the degree of aggregation the higher is the
viscosity.
Two (2) most common measures of viscosity:
● Softening Point Test -Softening point is the temperature at which a bitumen reaches a specified level of
viscosity.
● Standard Tar Viscometer - used to assess the viscosity of tars.

Penetration test - this test measures hardness, but this is related to viscosity

Strength and Failure of concrete

Strength - is probably the most important single property of concrete, since the first consideration in structural design
is that the structural elements must be capable of carrying the imposed loads

Strength Test
Compressive strength - uses a concrete cube, and this is the standard test

Tensile testing - number of gripping systems have been developed, but these are somewhat complex, and their use is
confined to research laboratories.

Splitting test - concrete cylinder, of the type used for compression testing, is placed on its side in a compression
testing machine and loaded across its vertical diameter.

Durability - The ability of a structure to survive and give continued required performance throughout its life.

Different possibilities through which a bituminous material can undergo failure:

● The exposure to the oxygen and different temperature effects the bitumen can harden
● Bad Quality aggregates used in the road construction may break down.
● Aggregate poor quality affects their binding with the bitumen, under continuous traffic load and weathering
action.
● Higher void content and permeability problems creating deterioration of the pavement.

2 processes of ageing
1. Oxidation process - The process involves the combining of the oxygen from the air with the aromatics and
the resins. The reaction will give asphaltenes.
2. Loss of volatiles - Presence of low molecular weighed substances in bitumen facilitated by higher
temperature will cause the loss of volatiles.

Permeability - -is an important parameter of a bituminous mixture because it controls the extent to which both air and
water can migrate into the material.
The factors affecting the permeability of the bituminous pavement are:
1. Quantity of voids
2. The void distribution size
3. The void continuity

Adhesion - This factor is the main parameter questioning the durability of the bituminous structures.

Properties of Adhesion
● The porosity of aggregates,
● Mineralogy, shape and surface texture of the aggregates
● the aggregate surface coatings and the presence of dust
● Surface area and absorption property
● The weathering grade and moisture content
● The abrasion value of aggregates and their pH
● The additives and the exposure history of the aggregates employed

Bituminous mixtures
Asphalts - dense materials and are characterized by their high bitumen content and high filler/fines content.

Macadams - range from dense mixtures to open- textured mixtures.

Other mixtures - which do not fit the general description of asphalts or macadams described in the previous sections.

Porous Asphalt - consists of standard bituminous asphalt in which the fines have been screened and reduced,
creating void space to make it highly permeable to water.
Stone Mastic Asphalt - (SMA) can be used in the Surface and Binder layers of a pavement.

Timber

Timber - also known as lumber

- Large squared lengths of wood used for building a house or a boat.
Presence of Moisture

● Standard moisture content of wood stands between 8% and 25% by weight,

● Timber reacts to moisture
● Known as HYDROSCOPIC materials which absorbs and expels water from its surrounding environment until
it reaches a state of equilibrium
● Newly fell tree contains water up to 50/5 of its dry weight

Resistance meter
Capacitance meter

Natural seasoning - air drying

Artificial seasoning - machine

Deformation in timber

The deformations of timber can be separated into different parts, such as:
● Elastic deformation - when timbers that can change due to stretching, twisting, compression and bending,
but once released, they return to their original shape.
● Viscoelastic (or normal) creep - the deformation with time at constant stress under constant environmental
conditions
● mechano-sorptive creep - for wood us induced by changes in its moisture contents, especially when an
external load is applied.

Strength - versatility and durability, cost, insulation

Failure -shrinkage and swelling, condensation, fire

Wood-framed buildings’ robustness

Processing of timber
1. Felling of trees - to get timber, the trees are knocked down or cut down or caused to fall to the ground.
2. Seasoning of Timber - which essential to reduce its moisture content and ensure uniform drying
- Purpose of Seasoning
- Hygroscopic nature of wood
- Effects of moisture fluctuations
- Equilibrium moisture content
- Protection during seasoning
3. Conversion of Timber - which timber is cut and saw into suitable sections is known as the conversion.
4. Preservation of Timber - carried out to achieve the following objects:
- To increase the life of timber structures
- To make the timber structures durable
- To protect the timber structures from the attack of destroying agencies such as fungi, insects, etc.