Breaking of

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.

Near about 85% of the total volume of HMA is made up of aggregates.

HMA pavement performance is greatly influenced by the characteristics of

the aggregates.
Literature Review
This study brings together the opinions and finding in literature which were
published during the last 40-50 years.

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:

Coarse Aggregates The portion of aggregates retained on 2.36mm size sieve

Aggregate which pass through the 2.36mm size sieve and

Fine Aggregates retains on 0.75m sieve

Mineral Fillers Aggregate which passes through 0.75mm size sieve

Aggregate Degradation
It is the phenomenon of breakage, a physical degradation of material caused due to
mechanical action.

The impact on the material leads to rearrangement of particles. When load is

increased and the flexural strength is surpassed, cracks are formed which lead to
breakage. The particles can break into equal parts or it can break from the surface
or corners.

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 physical significance of disintegration largely depends the relative importance

of these two factors.

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
Fig 1. Grain size vs Aggregate Impact Value
The graph shows relation between grain size and Aggregate Impact Value for Quartz
Dolerite. Data has been taken from one of the references (Boumezbeur 1994) and plotted,
which confirms ultimate strength of the aggregate decreases with the grain size.
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.
Interlocking between the grains show different strength in different type of
rock particles. It is evident that good interlocking in Limestone and dolomite
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.

𝑨𝒈𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝑰𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝑽𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒆 = (𝑩Τ𝑨) ∗ 𝟏𝟎𝟎

A = weight in g of saturated surface - dry sample,

B = weight in g of fraction passing through 2.36 mm IS Sieve
Effect of Aggregate Size and Gradation
• Maximum density in a mix is required to make the mix more
stable and this can be achieved by proper gradation. This means
the mix should have different size of aggregates, the smaller
aggregates will be packed in between the coarse aggregates,
which will reduce the voids and make the mix more dense.

• This will increase particle to particle contact, hence make the

mix more stable. depending on the fraction of coarse & fine
aggregates, the mix can be specified as open graded, dense
graded or one size mix.

• Several investigators have proposed ideal gradation for

maximum density. one of the best know and widely used
principle of these gradation is proposed by Fuller. the equation
for Fuller's maximum curve is:

𝑷 = 𝟏𝟎𝟎(𝒅Τ𝑫)𝒏

d is the diameter of sieve size in question

P is the total percent passing
D is the maximum size of aggregate
 Test Results
100

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 Sample Weight of Weight of Sample after Test Aggregate Average

Size (mm) No Aggregate Passing 2.36 Retained 2.36 Impact Value Aggregate
1 341.9 154.4 187.5 45.1594033
2.36 48.02880346
2 334 170 164 50.8982036
1 291.8 189 102.8 64.7703907
6.3 67.15592112
2 329.3 229 100.3 69.5414516
1 357.5 284.1 73.4 79.4685315
10 78.80198514
2 329.3 257.3 72 78.1354388
1 345 294 51 85.2173913
16 85.53608935
2 345.7 296.8 48.9 85.8547874
 % Cumulative Passing
Aggregate Size Actual With 100 With 200 With 500
Gradation blows Blows Blows
26.5 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00
19 90.00 96.06 93.67 93.18
Effect of 13.2 59.00 63.27 63.08 61.84
Compaction 9.5 52.00 53.91 55.98 54.29
under 4.75 35.00 36.23 36.84 36.05
Dynamic 2.36 28.00 31.46 31.63 31.74z
Loading 1.8 20.00 22.19 22.23 21.82
0.6 15.00 17.68 17.01 16.69
0.3 10.00 11.99 10.77 10.22
0.15 5.00 6.46 5.56 5.08
0.075 2.00 1.44 1.03 1.29
A laboratory study was carried out to evident the aggregate degradation. the focus of the study
was to track aggregate breakdown due to compaction using the Marshall hammer.

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.

This implies that, with impact load

some of the aggregates are broken
into the finer particles and the mix
after the blows is having more fines
than the actual gradation which in
terms shows the degradation of
aggregates under impact loading.
Measurement of Degradation - Sieve Analysis
• The most common method used to measure the
degradation is the sieve analysis. The same has also
been used in the laboratory test for Marshall stability.

• After compaction of the mould under Marshall

hammer, the aggregates were extracted with the help
of centrifuge extractor and again the gradation was
checked with the help of sieve analysis and was
compared to the original gradation.

• The graph of the gradation was plotted and found

that the gradation curve has been shifted upwards
which means that there were more fines than the
actual mix. The same can be seen above in fig. 4-6.
 • Degradation can be measured by the increase in area below
the grading curve. The most precise measure of degradation can
be the surface area determination.

• Gas adsorption technique can be used to calculate the surface

area of the material, this can be done by determining the
Measurement quantity of gas required to form a mono-molecular layer on the
surface of the material.

of Degradation • A modified version of the above technique is known as

- Surface Area Dynamic Nitrogen Adsorption Method. Nitrogen is adsorbed by
the sample in a similar manner, from a stream of nitrogen-
Technique helium gas mixture flowing over its surface.

• With the help of an instrument known as Katharometer the

adsorption is detected when the sample holder is immersed in a
bath of liquid nitrogen, which causes a change in the
composition of the gas stream. This is the most accurate method
for aggregate particles.
 • More complex grain shape and grain boundaries of rocks leads to
higher strength. Rocks with good interlocking between grains are
more resistant to degradation than others.
• When the degradation of rounded particles is compared with that
of angular particles of the same kind of aggregate, the rounded
Conclusion aggregate can be expected to produce less degradation because of
a reduction of that portion of degradation which is due to wear.
• Flaky aggregate shape gives low strength, which will lower the
strength of the asphalt. The most favorable shape is cubic, as cubic
aggregates interlocking is far better than any other shape which
gives low void ratio, thereof gives better strength.
• Gradation of the mixture is the most important factor controlling
degradation. As the gradation becomes denser, degradation
decreases as void ratio decreases.
• From the results of tests on mixtures with compactive efforts
ranging from low to high, it can be concluded that as compaction
effort is increased the coarse aggregates will degrade to fine
aggregates with itself means that while keeping the same
gradation, degradation increases with more compactive effort.
• The magnitude of degradation of a bituminous mixture, as
measured by percent increase in aggregate surface area, depends
on the following factors: kind of aggregate, aggregate gradation,
compactive effort, and particle shape.