DESIGNING THE COMPOSITION OF ASPHALT CONCRETE BY THE CALCULATION METHOD
Abstract
The article proposes a promising technology for designing asphalt mixes based on the method of "irregular packing" of figures of different sizes and shapes. The calculation has been improved and adapted to deter-mine the bulk density of asphalt concrete depending on the content of bituminous binder. A detailed algorithm for designing asphalt mixes based on the "irregular packing" method is described. MS Excel spreadsheets have been created with calculation formulas for converting the grain composition of the mineral part of the asphalt concrete mixture, the content of bituminous binder by volume and recalculating the bulk density of asphalt concrete, the content of air voids, voids in the mineral aggregate and voids filled with bituminous binder. In order to justify the application of the "irregular packing" method of figures of different sizes and shapes in determining the bulk density of asphalt concrete, the results of the calculated data were compared with laboratory tests of control samples during the preparation of ShMA-16 and A 16Vn asphalt concrete mixes at the plant, as well as cores taken from the coating on highway. As a result of the comparison, it was found that the discrepancy between the obtained experimental and calculated values in terms of bulk density does not exceed 0.02 g/cm3, and in terms of the content of bituminous binder, less than 0.2%.