Relationships Between Abrasion/Degradation of Aggregate Evaluated from Various Tests and the Effect of Saturation

Excerpt

Aggregate is a fundamental component of construction works. It is widely used for different construction purposes especially as road stones and as the main ingredient of Portland cement concrete (PCC). It normally comprises between 75 and 85 % by volume of Portland and asphalt cement concrete mixes and hence it is not surprising that the quality of aggregate is of considerable importance in determining their suitability for any specific engineering application (Al-Harthi 2001). Aggregate that has little resistance to degradation can cause many problems for both PCC and hot mix asphalt (HMA) mixes. In the road pavement, aggregate is subjected to the abrasive forces of heavy wheel loads that can break the aggregate down over time and change its gradation. If the gradation of these mixes is changed in this manner, the pavement may no longer have the characteristics that it was designed for. This problem can cause early failure of pavement through consolidation, cracking, polishing and other problems (Rangaraju and Edlinski 2008). …