Construction and Building Materials 154 (2017) 1048–1061

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Morphological characterization and mechanical analysis for coarse

aggregate skeleton of asphalt mixture based on discrete-element
modeling
Xunhao Ding a, Tao Ma a,⇑, Wang Gao a,b
a
School of Transportation, Southeast University, 2 Sipailou, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210096, China
b
State Engineering Laboratory of Highway Maintenance Technology, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha 410114, China

h i g h l i g h t s

Morphological characteristics of coarse aggregates were quantified.

Morphology of coarse aggregates were reconstructed within PFC2D.

Virtual penetration test was built to predict mechanical property of aggregates.

Stronger aggregate skeleton leads to better penetration resistance.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Focused on the aggregate microstructures to characterize the aggregate mechanical properties, this paper
Received 18 May 2017 proposed a modeling method of coarse aggregate based on the particle morphological characteristics. By
Received in revised form 1 August 2017 using the Aggregate Image Measurement System (AIMS), the realistic shape of granular aggregates was
Accepted 2 August 2017
captured and the statistical analysis was made to quantify the morphological differences firstly. Then
Available online 17 August 2017
by using Discrete-Element Method (DEM) software named as Particle Flow Code in two dimensions
(PFC2D) and with the help of the image processing techniques, an algorithm was developed to model
Keywords:
the two-dimensional shape of aggregates. Through linking the shape to the morphological index for each
Discrete-Element Method
AIMS
aggregate, the coarse aggregate skeleton was built which is consistent with the actual composition and
Aggregate structure of the laboratory specimens. After that, based on laboratory penetration test for granular aggre-
Angularity gates, virtual penetration test was built by PFC2D to verify the validity of the developed modeling algo-
Penetration test rithm. An optimized method was proposed further then to improve the simulation efficiency. This is
because of the time-consuming process when modeling the actual specimen which was composed of
numerous coarse aggregates with various shapes. Some representative particles were selected and recon-
structed based on the angularity index to form the virtual specimens with aggregates of gradations AC-13
and SMA-13. At last the virtual penetration test of AC-13, SMA-13 was conducted to predict the mechan-
ical behavior and the coarse aggregate skeleton structure characteristics were analyzed from the point of
micro-contact state. It is proved that the proposed modeling algorithm could well capture the realistic
shape of aggregates and virtual test based on the aggregates model could characterize the granular aggre-
gates mechanical properties accurately.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction of discrete elements [4–6]. However, limited by the current com-

The Discrete-Element Method is widely used in simulating the
mechanical behavior of the granular materials nowadays [1–3].
During discrete-element modeling, the precision of numerical
model and property prediction highly rely on the size and number
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: matao@seu.edu.cn (T. Ma).
puter storage capacity and computing speed, numerous discrete
elements during virtual modeling and tests could be very time-
consumed. Therefore, due to the difficulties in balancing the preci-
sion of simulation and the computation efficiency, most of the
existing methods tend to simplify the realistic shape of the granu-
lar materials during the modeling process. Although some
researchers proposed methods to build the virtual shape consistent
with the actual materials, it could not quantify the morphological

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.08.008
0950-0618/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 X. Ding et al. / Construction and Building Materials 154 (2017) 1048–1061
characteristics of each particle when simulating as well. All of
these lead to the inaccuracy of the DEM simulation in Road Engi-
neering nowadays.
The realistic shape of granular materials is considerable and will
influence the structure and mechanical behavior of mixture to
some extent, including void content, elasticity modulus, rutting,
fatigue cracking and so on [7–14]. Test conducted by Janoo [9]
showed that the volume of void in the aggregates was found to
increase with increasing aggregate angularity. Rocco and Elices
[10] investigated the shape effect of aggregate on the concrete
and concluded that concrete made with crushed aggregates pro-
vided values of the elasticity modulus higher than concrete made
with spherical ones. And there was a tendency for the modulus
to decrease with aggregate size for both kinds of aggregates. Bessa
et al. [11] pointed out that aggregate shape properties, such as
form, angularity, and surface texture, highly influenced the perfor-
mance of hot-mix asphalt. Rutting is related to aggregate angular-
ity and fatigue cracking can be decreased by an aggregate rough
surface texture. Similar findings were also shown by Sengoz [12]
that a relationship existed between the shape characteristics of
aggregates and the surface properties of HMA. According to the
published data above, it is important to take the realistic particle
shape into consideration when use the Discrete-Element Method.
Many modeling methods have been proposed that fall into two
general categories [15]. One is the stochastic algorithm and
another utilizes some scanning devices.
The stochastic algorithm controls the modeling process by some
random conditions. Lu and McDowell [16] proposed an algorithm
to model the ballast particle using overlapping balls. In this algo-
rithm, a ball was first created at the center of a cubic cell as the
main body of the particle and then other balls could be created
along fourteen directions around the center ball. Zhang [17]
regarded the aggregate particles as hexahedrons, pentahedrons
and tetrahedrons. First it generated large amount of balls in order
to fill the sample area. 3 random numbers which represented the X,
Y, Z coordinate values respectively were used to control the main
side lengths of each particle. This process cuts the whole sample
area into many particle areas and void areas. Then the balls inside
the particle area were convert into a clump. The particles gener-
ated by these stochastic algorithms are simplified to some extent
but can develop samples quickly with large amount. The shape of
particle is random, not accurate and the morphological character-
istics cannot be quantified. Such methods are similar to the study
of the Liu [18] and Tutumluer [19] as well.
The X-ray tomography imaging and other scanning technology
were successfully used to reconstruct the particles by some
researchers [20–23]. These means can model the particle shape
precisely but was not able to quantify the morphological character-
istics same as the stochastic algorithm. Because the X-ray tomog-
raphy imaging technology only provides the scanning images
without measuring any related morphological characteristics. To
quantify the morphological characteristics of aggregates, many
researchers have proposed methods or adopted some other appa-
ratus. The Sobel-Feldman operation were adopted to quantify
aggregate angularity using the gradient approach in the research
conducted by Chen et al. [24]. And the Sobel-Feldman operation
was improved further by Yang et al. [25] to measure the three-
dimensional surface of aggregates instead of two-dimensional
characteristics. Apparatus is utilized to measure the morphological
characteristics of aggregates such as CPA (Computerized Particle
Analysis) [26], Princeton gamma-tech (PGT) image analysis system
[27], University of Illinois Aggregate Image Analyzer (UIAIA) [28],
the Fourier Transform Interferometry (FTI) [29–30] and the
Aggregate Image Measurement System (AIMS) [31–34].
The objective of this study is to propose a method to build
the virtual particle capturing the realistic shape and linking
1049
the morphological characteristics to each particle. The AIMS
equipment was used to measure and quantify the morphological
characteristics of coarse aggregates. A commercial DEM software
named Particle Flow Code in two dimensions (PFC2D) was used
to build micromechanical modeling of coarse aggregate skeleton
and conducted virtual penetration test. The coarse aggregate
skeleton structure characteristics were analyzed from the point
of micro-contact state based on the virtual penetration test to
indicate the mechanical properties of coarse aggregates.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 mainly
introduces the experimental materials, apparatus and the basis
micromechanical models adopted in the research process. In
Section 3, the modeling methods to reconstruct the particles and
specimen are proposed. Section 4 analyzes the differences of
various particles based on the morphological characteristics. Then
virtual penetration tests are carried out to verify the validity of the
developed modeling methods and the micro-analysis on aggregate
skeleton is conducted to predict the mechanical behavior. Finally,
some research findings are summarized in Section 5.
2. Experimental and methodology
2.1. Materials
The basalt coarse aggregates were divided into various size particles through
standard sieve as the following particle diameters: 4.75–9.5 mm, 9.5–13.2 mm,
13.2–19 mm, 19–26.5 mm. The 4.75 mm aggregates were called for short to repre-
sent the particles with a diameter distribution between 4.75 and 9.5 mm. The other
size aggregates were the same. To improve the scanning accuracy, the sieved coarse
aggregates were washed and dried to keep the particle surface clean without obvi-
ous dust. 7 kinds of aggregate specimen were prepared as the following different
combinations. And the gradations of the SMA-13, AC-13 are shown in Table 1.
(1) 4.75, 9.5, 13.2, 16, 19 mm coarse aggregate specimen;
(2) 70% 4.75 mm+30% 19 mm coarse aggregate specimen;
(3) 70% 9.5 mm+30% 19 mm coarse aggregate specimen;
(4) 70% 13.2 mm+30% 19 mm coarse aggregate specimen;
(5) 70% 16 mm+30% 19 mm coarse aggregate specimen;
(6) SMA-13 coarse aggregate specimen;
(7) AC-13 coarse aggregate specimen.
2.2. Laboratory test
Penetration test [35] by using Universal Testing Machine (UTM) was designed
to characterize the inner frictional resistance of coarse aggregate. 7 kinds of coarse
aggregates were prepared according to the Section 2.1 and then were put into a
cylindrical mould. The cylindrical mould is 12 cm high and its diameter is 15 cm.
Fig. 1 shows the cylindrical mould used in the penetration test. The coarse aggre-
gates were put in the mould in three times. Then a tamping bar was used to hit
the specimen surface each time after the coarse aggregates put into make the spec-
imen compacted. During penetration test, a cylindrical penetration rod was pene-
trated into the testing sample at a speed of 1.27 mm/min. The diameter of the
loading head is 50 mm. The penetration resistance along with the penetration depth
was recorded.
The Aggregate Image Measurement System (AIMS) was utilized to capture the
coarse aggregate realistic shape. The aggregate images will be captured by the high
resolution camera and the morphological characteristics based on the images will
be calculated by the inner software including angularity index, texture index,
dimensional value and so on, as following equations [31].
(1) Angularity index
1 X n3
GA ¼ n jhi  hiþ3 j ð1Þ
s
 1 i¼1
where, h angle of orientation of the edge points; n is the total number of
points; subscript i denoting the ith point on the edge of the particle.
(2) Texture index
1 X3 X N
TX ¼ ðDi;j ðx; yÞÞ2 ð2Þ
3N i¼1 j¼1
where, D = decomposition function; n = decomposition level; N = total num-
ber of coefficients in an image; i = 1,2, or 3 for detailed images; j = wavelet
index; x, y = location of the coefficients in transformed domain.
1050 X. Ding et al. / Construction and Building Materials 154 (2017) 1048–1061

Table 1
Gradations for AC-13 and SMA-13.

Gradation Passing ratio (%) for different sieving size (mm)

16 13.2 9.5 4.75 2.36 1.18 0.6 0.3 0.15 0.075
AC-13 100 92.2 64.2 26.6 21.2 17.6 14.7 12.8 11.1 10.0
SMA-13 100 95 79.5 48.9 36.7 25.8 16.7 9.7 7.1 6.5

2.3.1. Contact-stiffness model

As shown in Fig. 2, in the modeling procedure within PFC2D, the basic principle
is that the material is discontinuous as balls with contacts. There are two contact
forms which are ball-ball contact and ball-wall contact. The former form character-
izes the contact conditions between particles, while the latter models the contact
conditions between particles and specimen containers. The force will arise from
the contact point in the normal and shear directions when two balls move to each
other or a ball moves close to a wall enough to have overlap. In Fig. 2, U n is the over-
lap of the two contact entities; d is the distance between the two contact entities; ni
is a unit normal vector that is directed along the line defining the shortest distance
between two contact entities; xci is the contact point in the contact-stiffness model;
In Fig. 2(a), xiA ; xBi are the position vector of the center of ball A,B respectively;
R½A ; R½B are the radius of the ball A,B respectively. In Fig. 2(b), xbi is the position vec-
tor of the center of ball B; R½b is the radius of the ball B. The contact force is inter-
related with the overlap U n and the normal/shear contact stiffness of the two
contact entities. The normal/shear contact stiffness are given by Eqs. (5) and (6)
and the normal/shear contact force are described as Eq. (7).

A B A B
kn kn s ks ks
Fig. 1. Penetration test by using Universal Testing Machine. Kn ¼ A B
k ¼ A B
ð5Þ
kn þ kn ks þ ks

(3) Other index w b w b

kn kn s ks ks
Kn ¼ w b
k ¼ w b
ð6Þ
kn þ kn ks þ ks
dl
Dimensional v alue : L=S ¼ ð3Þ
ds
F ni ¼ K n U n ni
where, dS = particle thickness (shortest dimension); dL = particle length
(longest dimension). s
DF si ¼ k DU s ð7Þ
CAAT ¼ 10  TX  0:5  GA ð4Þ n s
where, K is the normal stiffness at the contact; k is the shear stiffness at the con-
A B A B
where, CAAT is the Coarse Aggregate Angularity Texture value; TX is the tact; kn ; kn are the normal stiffness of the ball A,B respectively in Fig. 2(a); ks ; ks are
value of texture index; GA is the value of the angularity index. w b
the shear stiffness of the ball A,B respectively in Fig. 2(a); kn ; kn are the normal stiff-
w b
ness of the wall and ball B respectively in Fig. 2(b); ks ; ks are the shear stiffness of the
2.3. Micromechanical models for PFC2D wall and ball B respectively in Fig. 2(b); F ni is the normal contact force between two
entities; DF si is the shear contact force between two entities; ni is a unit normal vec-
The contact-stiffness model and slip model were selected in PFC2D when con- tor that is directed along the line defining the shortest distance between two contact
ducted the simulation because of the non-sticky granular materials. The principles entities; U n is the overlap of the two contact entities along the normal direction; DU s
of these two models are as follow: is the overlap of the two contact entities along the shear direction.

(a) ball-ball contact (b) ball-wall contact

Fig. 2. Contact-stiffness model.
 X. Ding et al. / Construction and Building Materials 154 (2017) 1048–1061 1051

2.3.2. Slip model
The slip model is an intrinsic property of the two entities (ball-ball or ball-wall)
in contact. It provides no normal strength in tension and allows slip to occur by lim-
iting the shear force. The contact is checked for slip conditions by calculating the
maximum allowable shear contact force in Eq. (8). If the shear force exceeds the
maximum allowable value, then the slip is allowed to occur.
F smax ¼l jF ni j ð8Þ
where, F smax
is the maximum allowable shear contact force; F ni
is the normal contact
force between two entities; l is the friction coefficient in PFC2D.
2.4. Research plan
By using the AIMS device, the realistic shape and morphological characteristics
of granular aggregates were captured firstly. Secondly the morphological recon-
struction of coarse aggregates was finished within PFC2D based on the image pro-
cessing method. By linking the morphological characteristics to each particle and
model the particle realistic shape in PFC2D, the virtual specimens for penetration
tests were built which was consistent with the specimen in laboratory. Then several
penetration test were carried out both in virtual simulation and laboratory test.
Through the penetration tests of different particle size, the microscopic parameters
were calibrated firstly. The penetration tests with aggregates of 4 random combina-
tions were carried out later to verify the validity of the selected microscopic param-
eters. An optimized method was proposed to improve the simulation efficiency and
the penetration tests of AC-13, SMA-13 were conducted to verify the validity of the
representative angular particles then. In the end, the coarse aggregate skeleton
structure characteristics of AC-13, SMA-13 were analyzed from the point of
micro-contact state. The research plan is shown in Fig. 3.
3. Discrete element modeling and test
3.1. Modeling of coarse aggregate particles
Fig. 4 shows the coarse aggregate shape image acquired by
AIMS scanning. By image processing method, the location informa-
tion of pixel could be read and stored. Then the virtual particles
could be rebuilt based on these pixels’ information within PFC2D.
Because of the high resolution outline image acquired by the AIMS
camera, the amount of pixel was numerous leading to the ineffi-
ciency and time-consuming when reconstructed the virtual parti-
cles. And each pixel’s color property was not same which could
not be distinguished by naked eyes. So prior to rebuilding the vir-
tual particles, the gray-scale processing and resolution reduction
must be carried out to convert the original image to binary gray
image with low resolution. The pixel’s color information of binary
gray image was stored in a two-dimensional matrix with an abso-
lute black and white having a value 0,1 respectively. By judging

Sieve the coarse aggregates

Outline image

Capture the realistic shape and morphological Angularity index

characteristics of granular aggregates via AIMS Texture index

Size

Link the morphological characteristics to each Other index

particle and model the particle realistic shape in
PFC2D.Develop the virtual specimens for
penetration test which is the consistent with the
laboratory specimen

Conduct laboratory penetration test Conduct virtual penetration test with

with aggregates of different size aggregates of different size

Calibrate the microscopic parameters

Conduct laboratory penetration test with Conduct virtual penetration test with
aggregates of 4 combinations aggregates of 4 combinations

Verify the validity of the selected micromechanical parameters

Conduct laboratory penetration test
with aggregates of gradations
AC-13, SMA-13

Conduct virtual penetration test with aggregates of gradations AC-13,

SMA-13 based on the representative particles

Verify the validity of the selected Analyze the coarse aggregate skeleton
representative particles structure of AC-13, SMA-13 from the
point of micro-contact state

Fig. 3. Research plan.

1052 X. Ding et al. / Construction and Building Materials 154 (2017) 1048–1061
Fig. 4. Image processing method.
each value of the matrix, the outline image and background could
be distinguished easily and then the absolute black pixel was
retained for the following procedure.
By generating the disks in the location of the absolute black
pixel within PFC2D, the coarse aggregate shape could be modeled
precisely as Fig. 5 shown. Then the virtual particle was rebuilt by
defining the generated disks as a rigid body using the fish language
command ‘‘clump” in PFC2D. As shown in Fig. 4, when scanning the
aggregate, the largest section of the particles can be obtained and
measured. The shortest dimensions of the 2D sections determine
the size of sieve pore the particles can go through. Thus, the size
relationship within gradations in three dimensions can be modeled
based on the 2D section images. Prior to importing pixel position to
PFC2D, the pixel coordinate should be revised proportionally and
the radius of each filled disks should be calculated so as to ensure
the consistency between the reconstructed virtual particle size and
actual particle size. That was because:
1. In AIMS scanning, particles with different size adopted different
scanning trays, the card slots among different trays were differ-
ent and scanning region was greatly different. When scanning
particles with different size, AIMS would adjust the position
of lens according to the card slot size of tray so as to determine
proper scanning height. Thus, after AIMS scanning, although the
image resolution was the same, the actual particle size in image
was different completely.
2. In image processing process, to reduce the number of disks
which consisted in virtual particle, the resolution was reduced
and it caused scaling of image to some extent. Thus, the particle
size displayed in the image didn’t agree with the actual particle
size as well.
The radius of the filled disks was consistent in a same particle
but was different from the disks in another one. Smaller the radius
Fig. 5. Virtual particles built in PFC2D.
is, the more disks will need when develop the virtual particles. And
it will consume more time for simulation when the model consists
of too many disks. By converting the original image to binary gray
image with low resolution, the number of retained pixels reduced a
lot firstly. Then the radius of disks was calculated based on the
actual distance between the adjacent pixels. So the generated disks
can fill in the particles well to form a whole structure.
Different from traditional DEM reconstruction method obvi-
ously, corresponding relationship between virtual particle and
morphological characteristics was established, the morphological
characteristics of the reconstructed virtual particles were mea-
sured quantitatively with shape index acquired from AIMS scan-
ning and Table 2 showed related shape index of the particle in
Fig. 5. According to the definition of shape index in Section 2.2,
the angularity index and size index were related to 2D outline form
of actual particle. While the reconstructed virtual particle shown in
Fig. 5 was highly consistent with realistic shape, so the angularity
index, size index could be directly used for representing the recon-
structed 2D virtual particle form. Moreover, the texture index and
combined value CAAT were related to surface microcosmic texture
and it was only represented through slip model in PFC2D. The code
file of each virtual particle was established and the related mor-
phological characteristic corresponding to the particle was written
in the code and taken as unique characteristic information of each
virtual particle. The virtual particles with different angularity
indices and dimensional values were shown in Figs. 6 and 7.
3.2. Modeling of coarse aggregate skeleton specimen
The virtual specimen was reconstructed based on the void con-
tent of the compacted specimen and aggregate density measured
in the laboratory as shown in Table 3. Prior to developing the
model, the specimen mass was converted to the mapping area of
the vertical section. The model was assumed to be dry without
 X. Ding et al. / Construction and Building Materials 154 (2017) 1048–1061 1053

Table 2
Related shape index of the particle in Fig. 5.

Angularity index Texture index CAAT Longest dimension/mm Shortest dimension/mm Dimensional value
1885.3 282.4 3767.4 22.78 17.28 1.32

Fig. 6. Virtual particles of various angularity indices: (a) 1885.3; (b) 2454.05; (c) 3409.150; (d) 4989.940; (e) 6370.34.

Fig. 7. Virtual particles of various dimensional values: (a) 1.05; (b) 1.65; (c) 2.32; (d) 3.21; (e) 4.27.

Table 3
Void content and aggregate density.

Size (mm) Void content (%) Density g/cm3

13.2–16 39.55 2.696
9.5–13.2 39.66 2.671
4.75–9.5 40.70 2.689
SMA13 39.60 –
AC13 39.55 –

any water and the inner void consisted of air only. The mapping
areas of the different size particles in the vertical section were
determined by the gradation and its density after the void content
was subtracted from the total area.
After the mapping area of different size particles were obtained,
the generation of model could be controlled well by the corre-
sponding area to determine the required number of virtual parti-
cles. Then enough coarse aggregate particles of the penetration
test specimen were selected and scanned to develop the model
according to the methods in Section 3.1. The generation process
was divided in three times same as the laboratory test. And the vir- Fig. 8. Virtual specimen of coarse aggregate skeleton.
tual particles of different sizes were generated each time until
reaching the goal which is the one third of the total mapping area. Reconstructing virtual model through scanning numerous par-
Moreover, wall was established in PFC2D to model the boundary of ticles kept consistent with the actual shape, but the number of
specimen and the specimen was compacted each time by develop- coarse aggregates in the specimen was huge, so it took a large
ing a load wall to simulate the compaction process. The virtual quantity of time to correspond to each particle when conducted
specimen was developed finally as shown in Fig. 8. virtual experiment in the former method. Whereas too many
1054 X. Ding et al. / Construction and Building Materials 154 (2017) 1048–1061

reconstructed virtual particles, the virtual experiment method was
further optimized. The coarse aggregate particle was divided
according to angularity index and the representative angular parti-
cles were screened from the whole. Prior to carrying out virtual
penetration experiment, the specimens of laboratory experiment
should be scanned so as to get the distribution range of the angu-
larity index, as shown in Table 4. When establishing virtual pene-
tration test model, the gradation relationship was represented
with 2D mapping area, same as the former. When each grade of
particle generated, different representative angular particles
should be called according to probability in Table 3 until the map-
ping area of the different grade particles reached the requirements.
Taking the specimen of AC-13, SMA-13 for an example, virtual
model of coarse aggregate framework was established in PFC2D
and the representative angular particles were called according to
the distribution of angularity index, as shown in Fig. 9. The speci-
men was 15 cm wide and 12 cm high. The modeled virtual grada-
tion and actual target gradation were shown in Fig. 10. After the
virtual specimen was developed, the generated areas of different
size particles were read through the FISH language within the
PFC2D. And they were compared with the target gradation by con-
verting the generated area to the corresponding mass. It can be
seen that when forming coarse aggregate framework, the precision
was high and could reflect the actual composition of specimen. The
virtual coarse aggregate area error was only 1–2%. With the
decrease of particle size, the error became smaller. The sole error
was caused by the area overflow of virtual particle of each grade
as the following equation:

Table 4
Angularity index distribution of different size particles.

Angularity index 2000 2000–2500 2500–3000 3000–3500 3500–4000 4000–4500 4500–5000 5000
size/mm
4.75 6.06% 25.76% 25.76% 19.70% 13.64% 6.06% 3.03% 0.00%
9.5 5.36% 12.50% 35.71% 25.00% 8.93% 7.14% 3.57% 1.79%
13.2 2.17% 19.57% 34.78% 19.57% 10.87% 6.52% 2.17% 4.35%
19 6.06% 15.15% 42.42% 21.21% 6.06% 9.09% 0.00% 0.00%

Fig. 9. Virtual specimen of gradations AC-13, SMA-13 based on representative angular particles: (a) AC-13; (b) SMA-13.

Fig. 10. Virtual gradation and actual target gradation of SMA-13, AC-13.
 X. Ding et al. / Construction and Building Materials 154 (2017) 1048–1061 1055

A>B 4. Results and discussion

ð9Þ
A <¼ B þ b
4.1. Morphological statistical analysis
where, A was 2D mapping area required to be put in of each grade
particle; B was the accumulative 2D mapping area sum of the par- Morphological characteristic distribution of each grade of parti-
ticle put in except the last particle; b was 2D area of the last particle cles was analyzed after conducting AIMS scanning of coarse aggre-
of this grade put in. gate particle with different grades and the results were shown in

Fig. 11. Morphological characteristic distribution of each grade of particles: (a) angularity index; (b) texture index; (c) CAAT; (d) dimensional value.

Fig. 12. Skeleton models with aggregates of different sizes: (a) 4.75 mm; (b) 9.5 mm; (c) 13.2 mm; (d) 16 mm; (e) 19 mm.
1056 X. Ding et al. / Construction and Building Materials 154 (2017) 1048–1061
Fig. 13. Virtual penetration test of 4.75 mm particles: (a) virtual model after loading; (b) stress nephogram.
Fig. 11. The data reliability is guaranteed by scanning sufficient
samples with a number of 800–1000 for different size particles.
According to Fig. 11(a), it was known the angularity index of par-
ticle with the size of 4.75, 9.5, 13.2 and 19 mm was mainly dis-
tributed in the range 2000–6000, and most of them were in
2500–4500, accounting for about 70–80%. The distribution propor-
tion of particles with these sizes was consistent when the angular-
ity index was below 3000 and the difference was unobvious.
However, in the range of 3000–6000, the 19 mm particles were
obviously different from 13.2 mm ones. The maximum angularity
index of 19 mm particles was only about 4000, while the maxi-
mum angularity index of particles with 13.2 mm reached above
6000, the maximum angularity index of 19 mm particles was far
smaller than that of 13.2 mm particle and slightly smaller than
other two particles. It indicated that more particles with extreme
angular shape existed in 13.2 mm than 19 mm. It was because
when the particle size was too big, the angular shape of particle
was easily worn in the process of squeezing and collision so that
the angular shape was unobvious. So the 19 mm particles had no
obvious extreme angular shape.
According to Fig. 11(b), it was known the texture index of par-
ticles with the particle size of 4.75, 9.5, 13.2 and 19 mm was
mainly distributed in the range 200–800, and most of them were
in 300–700, accounting for about 80–90%. The distribution trend
of texture index of particle with different grades was consistent,
but with the decrease of particle size, the texture curve distribu-
tion range was bigger. The following relation existed for the mini-
mum texture index of particle with different grades:
4.75 mm < 9.5 mm < 13.2 mm < 19 mm. And the relation about
the maximum texture index of particle with different grades
was: 4.75 mm > 9.5 mm > 13.2 mm > 19 mm. It indicated that the
smaller the particle was, the texture index range was more exten-
sive and the type of texture was richer.
According to Fig. 11(c), it was known the combined value
CAAT of particle with the particle size of 4.75, 9.5, 13.2 and
19 mm was mainly distributed in the range 2000–12,000, and
most of them were in 4000–8000, accounting for about 70–80%.
The change trend of CAAT value of each grade particle was
roughly consistent, only the proportion of some section was
inconsistent. According to Fig. 11(d), it was known the dimen-
sional value with particle size of 4.75, 9.5, 13.2 and 19 mm was
different obviously. The elongated particles were assumed as
the particles with dimensional value more than 3. In Fig. 11(d),
the quantity of elongated particles accounted for 37%, 35%, 36%
and 16% for the 4.75, 9.5, 13.2 and 19 mm particles respectively,
and the proportion of 19 mm particles was minimal. As shown in
Fig. 11(d), it was seen the elongated particle proportion of
9.5 mm and 13.2 mm was equivalent and slightly greater than
that of 19 mm. Although the quantity proportion of elongated
particle with 4.75 mm particle size was roughly consistent with
that of 9.5 mm and 13.2 mm, the dimensional value of them were
greater and could reach about 8, which was double of the maxi-
mum dimensional value of other particle size. To sum up, it indi-
cated that the smaller the particle size was, the quantity
proportion of elongated particle was bigger, and there were extre-
mely slim and flaky shape existed in 4.75 mm particles of which
the dimensional value could reach a very high state.
According to the morphological characteristic analysis by AIMS
scanning, it was known that coarse aggregate particle with differ-
ent sizes had certain differences in morphological characteristic.
And related research indicated that the morphological characteris-
tic had significant impact on mechanical property of coarse aggre-
gate particle, so when carrying out virtual experiment, the
morphological difference of coarse aggregate particle could not
be ignorable.
4.2. Virtual penetration test
Virtual experiment was carried out within PFC2D to determine
optimal micro-parameters. Firstly, the virtual penetration speci-
men of single particle size corresponding to laboratory specimen
was established according to the methods in Section 3.2, as shown
in Fig. 12. The corresponding wall was established in PFC2D to sim-
ulate lateral confinement boundary condition and loaded head. The
loading speed was consistent with the actual experiment at
1.27 mm/min. Taking the penetration test of 4.75 mm single parti-
cle size for an example, as shown in Fig. 13. Fig. 13(a) showed the
model after a certain amount of penetration for 4.75 mm particles,
Fig. 13(b) was the penetration stress nephogram at corresponding
moment. The black line meant pressure and thickness meant the
magnitude of force. According to Fig. 13(b), it was seen when the
loading head moved downward, the stress of coarse aggregate
diminished from top to bottom and from the middle to both sides.
Through carrying out other virtual penetration tests with differ-
ent single particle size and adjusting micro-parameter constantly,
the virtual test results of five groups were fitted to laboratory
results, as shown in Fig. 14. The micro-parameters determined in
such way was assumed to be optimal for built model temporary,
 X. Ding et al. / Construction and Building Materials 154 (2017) 1048–1061 1057

Fig.14. Virtual and laboratory test results of different aggregate size: (a) 4.75 mm; (b) 9.5 mm; (c) 13.2 mm; (d) 16 mm; (e) 19 mm.

Table 5 Table 6
micro-parameters in PFC2D. Macro properties of coarse aggregates.

Disk Wall E/GPa m m

Normal stiffness 2e6 N/m 1e10 N/m 55.5 0.35 0.5
Shear stiffness 2e6 N/m 1e10 N/m
Friction coefficient 0.5 0.7

To further validate the micro-parameters in Table 5, the virtual

penetration tests with different particle combinations were carried
as shown in Table 5. Moreover, the micro parameters of the wall out later. As shown in Fig. 15, virtual specimens composed of dif-
are determined based on the manual of PFC2D [36]. And the macro ferent coarse aggregates corresponding to laboratory tests were
properties of coarse aggregates are shown in Table 6. built. By adopting micro-parameters in Table 5, the simulation
1058 X. Ding et al. / Construction and Building Materials 154 (2017) 1048–1061

Fig. 15. Skeleton models for aggregates of different combinations: (a) 70% 4.75 mm + 30% 19 mm; (b) 70% 9.5 mm + 30% 19 mm; (c) 70% 13.2 mm + 30% 19 mm; (d) 70%
16 mm + 30% 19 mm.

Fig. 16. Virtual and laboratory test results of different aggregate combinations: (a) 70% 4.75 mm + 30% 19 mm; (b) 70% 9.5 mm + 30% 19 mm; (c) 70% 13.2 mm + 30% 19 mm;
(d) 70% 16 mm + 30% 19 mm.

results were compared with the laboratory tests, as shown in
Fig. 16.
According to the contrast between virtual and laboratory tests
of coarse aggregate skeleton with different combinations, it was
known that for coarse aggregate particles marked with micro-
parameters in Table 5, the virtual results of penetration test were
better coincide with the laboratory results, which further verified
the correctness of the micro-parameters. It showed that not only
did such coarse aggregate skeleton molding method reconstruct
the coarse aggregates morphology precisely, but also could predict
the stress strain characteristics of coarse aggregate particle in the
process of penetration test accurately and rapidly by proposed vir-
tual model.
4.3. Micro-analysis on representative particle aggregate skeleton
Because of the numerous particles consisting in the specimen of
gradations AC-13 and SMA-13, reconstructing each coarse aggre-
gate particle corresponding to the actual specimen would take
much time, so according to the methods described in Section 3.2,
the virtual coarse aggregate skeleton models of gradations AC-13
and SMA-13 were built by adopting the representative angular par-
ticles based on the angularity index distribution probability in
Table 4, as shown in Fig. 9. The virtual specimen of AC-13 and
SMA-13 consistent with actual particle morphology of laboratory
specimen was established for virtual penetration tests. And the test
results of representative angular particles and actual particles were
 X. Ding et al. / Construction and Building Materials 154 (2017) 1048–1061 1059

Fig. 17. Virtual penetration test results of gradation AC-13, SMA-13 with aggregates based on actual and representative particles: (a) AC-13; (b) SMA-13.

(a) (b)

(a) AC-13 (b) SMA-13

Fig. 18. Micro-contact nephogram of gradations: (a) AC-13; (b) SMA-13.

angular shapes, screening particles with representative angularity

Fig. 19. Micro-contact force distribution of gradations AC-13, SMA-13.
shown in Fig. 17. It was known that the virtual specimens consist
of representative angular particles or actual particles both had
the penetration test curve approximated to laboratory results but
the virtual penetration test result of actual particles was more
accurate than that of representative angular particles with slight
differences. Thus, it was known that dividing particle into different
index and calling corresponding representative particle according
to the actual angularity index distribution of coarse aggregate for
virtual penetration test could reflect the penetration characteris-
tics of actual specimen. Not only did it reduce the time consumed
by each coarse aggregate particle built in simulation, but also
developed the models rapidly, conveniently and efficiently accord-
ing to the angularity index distribution features of different exper-
imental samples.
Micro-analysis was carried out for skeleton structures of grada-
tions AC-13 and SMA-13 generated by applying representative
angular aggregate. Fig. 18 showed the micro-contact nephogram
of skeleton before virtual test loading of gradations AC-13 and
SMA-13 with representative angular particles. It was obviously
seen that the contact points of AC-13 were far more than SMA-
13 in the skeleton structure. The quantity of micro-contact points
and magnitude of force on each contact point was acquired
through the organized FISH statements in PFC2D. And there were
2050 contact points in AC-13 virtual specimen and 1198 contact
points in SMA-13. The difference of contact point was because of
the finer compositions with more particles the AC-13 had, so the
quantity of contact points in AC-13 coarse aggregation skeleton
were larger than those of SMA-13 skeleton structure.
1060 X. Ding et al. / Construction and Building Materials 154 (2017) 1048–1061
Fig. 20. Accumulative particle displacement distribution at different penetration levels.
Except the difference in quantity of contact points, it was seen
the contact line in SMA-13 contact stress nephogram was thicker
than that of AC-13 as shown in Fig. 18. It indicated that the contact
of SMA-13 coarse aggregate skeleton was fewer, but the quantity of
high contact force was larger than that of AC-13. The distribution
proportion of each contact force in AC-13 and SMA-13 skeleton
was shown in Fig. 19. According to Fig. 19, it was known the
micro-contact of AC-13 and SMA-13 skeletons was mainly dis-
tributed in 0–5 N, accounting for 75–85%. Within the contact force
of 0–5 N, the proportion of AC-13 was bigger than that of SMA-13.
However, when contact force was greater than 5 N, the proportion
of SMA-13 increased and higher than AC-13, especially the propor-
tion of SMA-13 was obviously higher than that of AC-13 when con-
tact force was greater than 10 N. It indicated that although the
SMA-13 skeleton structure consisted of thicker particles with
fewer contact points, more key contact points bearing the large
force appeared which could form extruded structure better to
some extent so as to resist external load. Thus, according to
Fig. 17, it was seen the penetration resistance of SMA-13 was
greater than that of AC-13. However, higher local contact also
caused stress concentration. When bearing external load beyond
the ultimate capacity or for a long time, the stable structure of
coarse aggregate was destructive more easily owing to the failure
of high contact force point.
Fig. 20 showed accumulative displacement distribution
nephogram of virtual specimens with particles of AC-13,
SMA-13 at different penetrations. According to Fig. 20, it was
known when the penetration quantity was small, the displace-
ment of coarse aggregation in AC-13 and SMA-13 skeleton was
roughly consistent. Nearby the loading head, the displacement
of coarse aggregate diminished from top to bottom and from
the middle to both sides. However, when penetration quantity
increased gradually after 3 mm, the vertical displacement of
AC-13 and SMA-13 was roughly consistent, but the coarse
aggregate of AC-13 easily shifted in crosswise direction owing
to disturbance. Displacement nephogram started expanding
horizontally and coarse aggregate particles on both sides of
loading head were upheaved rapidly. It indicated that under
the vertical load, the vertical displacement of particle was
roughly consistent, but the finer skeleton was more easily
changed in horizontal direction owing to disturbance. It also
further indicated the reason for the penetration resistance of
SMA-13 higher than that of AC-13 in Fig. 17.
5. Conclusions
(1) Through AIMS scanning, the morphological characteristics of
coarse aggregate particle were quantified, including angular-
ity index, texture index, dimensional value, combined value
CAAT, etc., which could evaluate the morphological attri-
butes of particles accurately; through statistical analysis of
morphological characteristics, the differences of coarse
aggregate particles with different grades of particle size in
morphological characteristics could be obtained. Usually,
the distribution range of angularity index for coarse aggre-
gate particle was 2000–6000, the texture index range was
200–800 and the dimensional value was 1.5–8.
(2) Based on image processing technology, the morphology of
coarse aggregate particle was reconstructed within PFC2D
accurately and the corresponding relation between coarse
aggregate particle and morphological characteristics was
established. The modeling was highly precise. The morphol-
ogy of coarse aggregate particle in the virtual specimen was
consistent with that in actual one, which provided basis for
studying the impact of morphological characteristics of
coarse aggregate particle on mechanical property. Moreover,
 X. Ding et al. / Construction and Building Materials 154 (2017) 1048–1061
the proposed methods can be adopted to predict the results
of the laboratory test efficiently which can save time and
reduce the cost obviously.
(3) Based on the morphological reconstruction algorithm of
coarse aggregate, the virtual penetration tests with different
single particle size and different combinations were carried
out. The virtual experimental results were identical to
laboratory experimental results, which further verified the
correctness of micro-parameters. Thus, the proposed
method could predict the stress-stain characteristics of
coarse aggregate rapidly and accurately and could be
deemed as auxiliary means of laboratory experiments.
(4) Through dividing coarse aggregate particle according to
angularity index, screening and reconstructing virtual exper-
imental model with representative angular particles and
based on the virtual penetration tests of gradations AC-13
and SMA-13 between representative particles and actual
particles, it was known that the virtual experimental results
of representative angular particles approximated to virtual
experiment of actual particles and both of them were coin-
cide with the laboratory results better. Thus, such method
adopting the representative angular particles was reason-
able which could reduce time consumed by reconstructing
all the coarse aggregate and enhance the efficiency.
(5) Coarse aggregate skeleton structure of AC-13 and SMA-13
was analyzed from the micro perspective, including the
quantity of micro-contact points, magnitude of micro-
contact force, and displacement distribution at different
penetrations. It was concluded that the thicker the coarse
aggregate skeleton was, the contact points were fewer, but
the proportion of high contact force points was more, which
could form better extruded structure to resist external load;
when carrying out penetration test for finer skeleton, it was
more easily unstable owing to horizontal disturbance, so the
penetration resistance of AC-13 was smaller than that of
SMA-13.
Acknowledgements
The study is financially supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (No. 51378006 and No. 51378123),
Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu (BK20161421 and
BK20140109), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Univer-
sities (No. 2242015R30027), and Open Fund of State Engineering
Laboratory of Highway Maintenance Technology (Changsha
University of Science & Technology, kfj160104).
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