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Breaking of Aggregates Under Impact Loading
Breaking of Aggregates Under Impact Loading
Aggregates under
Impact Loading in
Hot Mix Asphalt
(HMA)
Saurabh Goyal & Harpreet Sodhi
Introduction
Being a fast developing country, HMA constitutes a large part of India's
surfaced roads.
Over long periods of time, HMA pavement are expected to perform under a
variety of traffic and environmental conditions.
It is concerning the effect of aggregate types (mineralogy & grain size of rock),
aggregate size, shape, surface texture and compactive effort on the physical
properties of aggregate under impact loading which ultimately affect the properties
of HMA.
An attempt is made to present all the important point of view, even though nothing
new is presented, it is hoped that this study will stimulate the new thinking and
bring a better understanding about the degradation of aggregates.
Aggregates in HMA
Aggregates in HMA can be divided into three categories according to
their sizes:
This reduction in size and removal of angular portion lead to reduction of two
important component of the stability: Resistance to deformation under load which
are the particle interlock and, Inter-particle friction between the original
aggregates.
The few factors which largely affect the disintegration of aggregates are the type of
aggregates (minerology and grain size of rock), size of the aggregate, shape and
texture of the aggregate and the compactive effort.
Effect of Microstructure of Rock and Minerology
Strength of aggregate is an intrinsic property of the rock itself. Igneous rocks,
due to presence of silica are strong whereas sedimentary rocks are generally
lower in toughness due to presence of soft cleavable minerals such as calcite.
If the particle is composed of smaller grain size, the aggregate shows greater
strength. The aggregate with different grain size also shows greater strength
than the aggregate with uniform grain size.
More complex grain shape and grain boundaries leads to higher strength.
Presence of micas also impact the strength of the aggregate. Small randomly
oriented mica increases the toughness whereas higher size of mica than the
minerals can lead to decrease in the strength of the aggregate.
Foliation also effect the strength of the aggregate. Foliation with the mica or
clay particles makes the aggregate stronger than without the foliation of
mica. Metamorphic rocks of foliated varieties are low in toughness.
Fig 1. Grain size vs Aggregate Impact Value
The graph shows relation between grain size and Aggregate Impact Value for Quartz
Interlocking between the grains show different strength in different type of
Dolerite. Data has been taken from one of the references (Boumezbeur 1994) and plotted, rock particles. It is evident that good interlocking in Limestone and dolomite
which confirms ultimate strength of the aggregate decreases with the grain size.
show low degradation.
Flakiness Index
• Flaky aggregate shape gives low strength, which will lower
the strength of the asphalt
• Fine grained Igneous rocks are more brittle in nature which
gives more flaky aggregates while crushing, the stronger
the rock, higher the proportion of flaky aggregates
• Flakiness Index is the measurement for the determination
of aggregate particle shape
• Lower Flakiness Index means the shape is closer to cubic
shape
• The relationship between the aggregate impact value and
Flakiness Index can be seen to have linear
• the relationship between the aggregate impact value and
Flakiness Index can be seen to have linear
• The stability of road aggregate largely depends on internal
friction and interlocking between the particles, which
greatly effects the degree of compaction.
Effect of Aggregate Size and Gradation
• Stability of a mix under dynamic loading largely depends on the aggregate structure, which can
be defined in terms of aggregate contact points and surface area.
• For a given volume fine aggregate will have more contact points than the Coarse aggregate thus
Coarse aggregate will have more void ratio, which will make overall loose mix.
• If a mix have aggregates of Same size that will also affect the stability. Voids in same size
aggregate will not be filled. And as the size increases the voids will increase.
• To come to natural state, these coarse aggregate will undergo breakage and the voids will be
filled by the smaller broken aggregates.
• A laboratory study has been carried in which aggregate impact value test has been performed
on different aggregate sizes. The study showed the increasing trend of aggregate impact value
i.e. larger the aggregate, more will be the breakage of aggregates under same impact load.
𝑷 = 𝟏𝟎𝟎(𝒅Τ𝑫)𝒏
90
80
Aggregate Impact Value
70
60
50
40
30
20
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Aggregate Size (mm)
Aggregate degradation with impact load is shown below with three different curves. In each
curve, two different gradation (before & after the compaction with different no's of blows)
plotted against the aggregate sizes.
From the above results, it is observed
that the gradation curves have shifted
upwards with increase in the number
of blows with respect to the actual
gradation curve.