Pavement Materials and Construction (PM&C) Module 3

MODULE 3

Syllabus
Bituminous Mixes: Introduction, Desirable Properties, Marshal Mix Design, Sample
Preparation, Volumetric Properties, Marshal Stability and Flow-OBC, Problems

Bituminous Mix Design

Overview
The mix design (wet mix) determines the optimum bitumen content. This is preceded by the
dry mix design discussed in the previous chapter. There are many methods available for mix
design which varies in the size of the test specimen, compaction, and other test specifications.
Marshall Method of mix design is the most popular one and is discussed below.

Desirable Properties

1. Resistance to permanent deformation: The mix should not distort or be displaced when
subjected to traffic loads. The resistance to permanent deformation is more important at
high temperatures.
2. Fatigue resistance: the mix should not crack when subjected to repeated loads over a
period of time.
3. Resistance to low temperature cracking. This mix property is important in cold regions.
4. Durability: the mix should contain sufficient asphalt cement to ensure an adequate film
thickness around the aggregate particles. The compacted mix should not have very high
air voids, which accelerates the aging process.
5. Resistance to moisture-induced damage.
6. Skid resistance.
7. Workability: the mix must be capable of being placed and compacted with reasonable
effort.
8. Low noise and good drainage properties: If the mix is to be used for the Surface or
Wearing layer of the pavement structure.

Marshall Mix design

The Marshall Stability and flow test provides the performance prediction measure for the
Marshall Mix design method. The stability portion of the test measures the maximum load
supported by the test specimen at a loading rate of 50.8 mm/minute. Load is applied to the
specimen till failure, and the maximum load is designated as stability. During the loading, an
attached dial gauge measures the specimen's plastic flow (deformation) due to the loading.
The flow value is recorded in 0.25 mm (0.01 inch) increments at the same time when the
maximum load is recorded. The important steps involved in marshal mix design are
summarized next

Specimen Preparation

Approximately 1200gm of aggregates and filler is heated to a temperature of 175 to 190oC.

Bitumen is heated to a temperature of 121 to 125oC with the first trial percentage of bitumen
(say 3.5 or 4% by weight of the mineral aggregates). The heated aggregates and bitumen are
thoroughly mixed at a temperature of 154 to 160oC. The mix is placed in a preheated mould

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 Pavement Materials and Construction (PM&C) Module 3
and compacted by a rammer with 50 blows on either side at temperature of 138oC to 149oC.
The weight of mixed aggregates taken for the preparation of the specimen may be suitably
altered to obtain a compacted thickness of 63.5+/-3 mm. Vary the bitumen content in the next
trial by +0:5% and repeat the above procedure. Numbers of trials are predetermined. The
prepared mould is loaded in the Marshall Test setup as shown below.

Fig. 1: Marshall Stability Test Apparatus

Properties of the mix

The properties that are of interest include the theoretical specific Gravity Gt, the bulk specific
gravity of the mix Gm, percent air voids Vv, percent volume of bitumen Vb, percent void in
mixed aggregate VMA and percent voids filled with bitumen VFB. These calculations are
discussed next. To understand this calculation a phase diagram is given in Figure 2.

Fig. 2: Phase diagram of a bituminous mix

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 Pavement Materials and Construction (PM&C) Module 3
Theoretical Specific Gravity of the mix (Gt)

Theoretical specific gravity (Gt) is the specific gravity without considering air voids, and is
given by:

where,
W1 is the weight of coarse aggregate in the total mix,
W2 is the weight of fine aggregate in the total mix,
W3 is the weight of filler in the total mix,
Wb is the weight of bitumen in the total mix,
G1 is the apparent specific gravity of coarse aggregate,
G2 is the apparent specific gravity of fine aggregate,
G3 is the apparent specific gravity of filler,
Gb is the apparent specific gravity of bitumen

Bulk Specific Gravity of mix (Gm)

The bulk specific gravity or the actual specific gravity of the mix Gm is the specific gravity
considering air voids and is found out by:

where,
Wm is the weight of mix in air,
Ww is the weight of mix in water;
Note that Wm -Ww gives the volume of the mix. Sometimes to get accurate bulk specific
gravity, the specimen is coated with thin film of paraffin wax, when weight is taken in the
water. This however requires considering the weight and volume of wax in the calculations.

Air Voids percent (Vv)

Air voids Vv is the percent of air voids by volume in the specimen and is given by:

where,
Gt is the theoretical specific gravity of the mix
Gm is the bulk or actual specific gravity of the mix

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 Pavement Materials and Construction (PM&C) Module 3
Percent volume of bitumen Vb

The volume of bitumen Vb is the percent of volume of bitumen to the total volume and given
by:

where,
W1 is the weight of coarse aggregate in the total mix,
W2 is the weight of fine aggregate in the total mix,
W3 is the weight of filler in the total mix,
Wb is the weight of bitumen in the total mix,
Gb is the apparent specific gravity of bitumen,
Gm is the bulk specific gravity of mix

Voids in Mineral Aggregate (VMA)

Voids in mineral aggregate VMA is the volume of voids in the aggregates, and is the sum of
air voids and volume of bitumen, and is calculated from,

VMA = Vv + Vb
where,
Vv is the percent air voids in the mix,
Vb is percent bitumen content in the mix

Voids Filled with Bitumen (VFB)

Voids filled with bitumen VFB is the voids in the mineral aggregate frame work filled with
the bitumen, and is calculated as:

where,
Vb is percent bitumen content in the mix,
VMA is the percent voids in the mineral aggregate

Determination of Marshall Stability and Flow

Marshall Stability of a test specimen is the maximum load required to produce failure when
the specimen is preheated to a prescribed temperature placed in a special test head and the
load is applied at a constant strain (5 cm per minute). While the stability test is in progress
dial gauge is used to measure the vertical deformation of the specimen. The deformation at
the failure point expressed in units of 0.25 mm is called the Marshall Flow value of the
specimen.
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 Pavement Materials and Construction (PM&C) Module 3
Apply Stability Correction
It is possible while making the specimen the thickness slightly vary from the standard
specification of 63.5 mm. Therefore, measured stability values need to be corrected to those
which would have been obtained if the specimens had been exactly 63.5 mm. This is done by
multiplying each measured stability value by an appropriated correlation factors as given in
Table below.

Preparation of Graphical Plots

The average values of the above properties are determined for each mix with different
bitumen content and the following graphical plots are prepared:
1. Binder content versus corrected Marshall Stability
2. Binder content versus Marshall Flow
3. Binder content versus percentage of void (Vv) in the total mix
4. Binder content versus voids filled with bitumen (VFB)
5. Binder content versus unit weight or bulk specific Gravity (Gm)

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 Pavement Materials and Construction (PM&C) Module 3
The stability value, flow value, and VFB are checked with Marshall Mix design specification
chart given in Table below. Mixes with very high stability value and low flow value are not
desirable as the pavements constructed with such mixes are likely to develop cracks due to
heavy moving loads.

Determination of Optimum Bitumen Content (OBC)

Determine the optimum binder content for the mix design by taking average value of the
following three bitumen contents found form the graphs obtained in the previous step.
1. Binder content corresponding to maximum stability
2. Binder content corresponding to maximum bulk Specific Gravity (Gm)
3. Binder content corresponding to the median of designed limits of percent air voids (Vv) in
the total mix (i.e. 4%)

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 Pavement Materials and Construction (PM&C) Module 3

Problems

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