6/7/2020 Dry mix design

Dry mix design

Lecture notes in Transportation Systems Engineering

3 August 2009

Overview
The objective of dry mix design is to determine the amount of various
sizes of mineral aggregates to use to get a mix of maximum density.
The dry mix design involves three important steps, viz. selection of
aggregates, aggregates gradation, and proportion of aggregates,
which are discussed below.

Selection of aggregates
The desirable qualities of a bituminous paving mixture are dependent
to a considerable degree on the nature of the aggregates used.
Aggregates are classified as coarse, fine, and filler. The function of the
coarse aggregates in contributing to the stability of a bituminous
paving mixture is largely due to interlocking and frictional resistance
of adjacent particles. Similarly, fines or sand contributes to stability
failure function in filling the voids between coarse aggregates. Mineral
filler is largely visualized as a void filling agent. Crushed aggregates
and sharp sands produce higher stability of the mix when compared
with gravel and rounded sands.

Aggregate gradation
The properties of the bituminous mix including the density and
stability are very much dependent on the aggregates and their grain
size distribution. Gradation has a profound effect on mix performance.
It might be reasonable to believe that the best gradation is one that
produces maximum density. This would involve a particle arrangement
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where smaller particles are packed between larger particles, thus

reducing the void space between particles. This create more particle-
to-particle contact, which in bituminous pavements would increase
stability and reduce water infiltration. However, some minimum
amount of void space is necessary to:

provide adequate volume for the binder to occupy,

promote rapid drainage, and
provide resistance to frost action for base and sub base courses.

A dense mixture may be obtained when this particle size distribution

follows Fuller law which is expressed as:

(1)

where, is the percent by weight of the total mixture passing any

given sieve sized, is the size of the largest particle in that mixture,
and n is the parameter depending on the shape of the aggregate (0.5
for perfectly rounded particles). Based on this law Fuller-Thompson
gradation charts were developed by adjusting the parameter for
fineness or coarseness of aggregates. Practical considerations like
construction, layer thickness, workability, etc, are also considered. For
example Table [*] provides a typical gradation for bituminous
concrete for a thickness of 40 mm.
Table: Specified gradation of aggregates for
BC surface course of 40 mm
Sieve size Wt passing (%) Wt passing (%)
(mm) Grade 1 Grade 2
20 - 100
12.5 100 80-100
10.0 80 - 100 70 - 90
4.75 55 - 75 50 - 70
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2.36 35 - 50 35 - 50
0.60 18 - 29 18 - 29
0.30 13 - 23 13 - 23
0.15 8 - 16 8 - 16
0.075 4 - 10 4 - 10
Binder* 5 - 7.5 5 - 7.5

* Bitumen content in percent by weight of the mix

Proportioning of aggregates
After selecting the aggregates and their gradation, proportioning of
aggregates has to be done and following are the common methods of
proportioning of aggregates:

Trial and error procedure: Vary the proportion of materials

until the required aggregate gradation is achieved.

Graphical Methods: Two graphical methods in common use for

proportioning of aggregates are, Triangular chart method and
Roch's method. The former is used when only three materials are
to be mixed.

Analytical Method: In this method a system of equations are

developed based on the gradation of each aggregates, required
gradation, and solved by numerical methods. With the advent of
computer, this method is becoming popular and is discussed
below. The resulting solution gives the proportion of each type of
material required for the given aggregate gradation.

Example 1

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6/7/2020 Dry mix design

The gradation required for a typical mix is given in Table [*] in

column 1 and 2. The gradation of available for three types of
aggregate A, B, and C are given in column 3, 4, and 5. Determine the
proportions of A,B and C if mixed will get the required gradation in
column 2.
Table: Gradation
Sieve Required Filler Fine Coarse
size Gradation Aggr. Aggr.
(mm) Range (A) (B) (C)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
25.4 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
12.7 90-100 100.0 100.0 94.0
4.76 60-75 100.0 100.0 54.0
1.18 40-55 100.0 66.4 31.3
0.3 20-35 100.0 26.0 22.8
0.15 12-22 73.6 17.6 9.0
0.075 5-10 40.1 5.0 3.1

Solution

The solution is obtained by constructing a set of equations considering

the lower and upper limits of the required gradation as well as the
percentage passing of each type of aggregate. The decision need to
take is the proportion of aggregate A, B, C need to be blended to get
the gradation of column 2. Let , , represent the proportion of

A, B, and C respectively. Equation of the form or

can be written for each sieve size, where a, b, c is the proportion

of aggregates A, B, and C passing for that sieve size and and

are the required gradation for that sieve size. This will lead to the
following system of equations:

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(2)

Solving the above system of equations manually is extremely difficult.

Good computer programs are required to solve this. Software like
solver in Excel and Matlab can be used. Soving this set of equations is
outside the scope of this book. Suppose the solution to this problem is
, , . Then Table [*] shows how when these

proportions of aggregates A, B, and C are combined, produces the

required gradation.
Table: Result of mix design
Sieve Filler Fine Coarse Combined Required
size Aggr. Aggr. Gradation Gradation
(mm) (A) (B) (C) Obtained Range
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
25.4 100x0.05=5.0 100x0.3=30.0 100x.65=65 100 100
12.7 100x0.05=5.0 100x0.3=30.0 94x0.65=61 96 90-100
4.76 100x0.05=5.0 100x0.3=30.0 54x0.65=35.1 70.1 60-75
1.18 100x0.05=5.0 66.4x0.3=19.8 31.3x0.65=20.4 45.2 40-55
0.3 100x0.05=5.0 26.3x0.3=07.8 22.8x.65=14.8 27.6 20-35
0.15 73.6x0.05=3.7 17.6x0.3=05.3 9x0.65=5.9 14.9 12-22
0.75 40.1x0.05=2.0 5x0.3=01.5 3.1x0.65=2.0 5.5 5-10

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Summary
Various steps involved in the dry mix design were discussed.
Gradation aims at reducing the void space, thus improving the
performance of the mix. Proportioning is done by trial and error and
graphical methods.

Problems

1. Fullers law is expressed as

1. p=100

2. p=100

3. p=100

4. p=100

Solutions

1. Fullers law is expressed as

1. p=100

2. p=100

3. p=100

4. p=100

No References!

Prof. Tom V. Mathew 2009-08-03

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6/7/2020 Dry mix design

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