International Journal of Modern Research in Engineering & Management (IJMREM)

||Volume|| 1||Issue|| 10 ||Pages|| 75-83 || November 2018|| ISSN: 2581-4540

Design and Evaluation of Open Graded Hot Mix Asphalt Using

Cement as A Grouting Material
1,
Gulzar Hussain Jatoi, 2,Naeem Aziz Memon, 3,Pervez shaikh, 4,Abdul Qudoos
Malano, 5,Abdul Hafeez Memon
1,2,3,4,5,
Department of Civil Engineering, Mehran UET Jamshoro Pakistan

---------------------------------------------------ABSTRACT-------------------------------------------------------
Road networks ought to be efficiently designed to be safe, speedy and loading sustaining as it has a significant
importance in country’s development. For that, pavement should be designed efficiently to exhibit better
strength, durability and economical at the same time. Generally, a pavement is classified as Flexible or Rigid.
Flexible pavement is opened early to traffic, has good riding quality and ease of maintenance but owing to heavy
loading conditions these pavements are more susceptible to wear and tear. On the contrary rigid pavement is
load sustaining, durable but having higher construction cost and poor riding quality. World is heading to semi-
rigid pavement which exhibits characteristics of both these pavements. It is the combination of cement concrete
and porous asphalt concrete which is achieved by leaving 25% to 30% air voids infused by cement grouts and is
known as Semi-rigid pavement.In this research, semi-rigid pavement was designed using ratio of grout of
optimum mix was 1:0.55 at water cement ratio by 2% of cement dosage with SP. Study concludes that, Semi-
rigid pavement’s Marshall stability of 7 days was almost 85% of rigid pavement and 28 days compressive
strength of semi-rigid pavement was almost 30.5% that of rigid pavement. Besides, it has been ensured that 7
days strength is comparable to 28 days strength of Semi-rigid pavement.

KEYWORDS: Cement grout, Flexible pavement, Marshall Mix design, Open graded asphalt and Semi-Rigid
pavement.
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Date of Submission: Date, 16 November 2018 Date of Accepted: 21 November 2018
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I. INTRODUCTION
In Pakistan flexible pavements are almost designed as Hot Mix Asphalt pavements (HMA) and these pavements
are widely designed by using an old method i.e. Marshal Mix Design. As development of any country is specified
by the road networks, end users and their main priorities are to save time, cost, and get more capacity and riding
comforts. Whereas designer’s objectives are to design a pavement having long life, high strength and low cost
that meets the economic and environmental requirements of the life cycle. There are two types of pavements
widely used, one is flexible pavement which is economical and has excellent riding quality, low maintenance cost
but has more chances of failure i.e. rutting, fatigue, and low flexural strength and has low design life etc. second
type is a rigid pavement which has very high flexural strength, high construction cost, low maintenance as well as
riding is not as good as that of flexible pavement. Keeping in the consideration both the pavement design
methods another pavement design was introduced named as “Semi Rigid pavement” It was introduced as Resin-
Modified Pavements (RMP) in 1960’s and later developed as Semi-Rigid Pavement (SRP). This heavy-duty
pavement meets combined requirements of both pavements; it provides rut resistance to heavy and slow-moving
traffic, good riding quality, durability and resistance to chemical attacks and oils. In many developed countries of
world these pavements are being used for aircraft aprons, industrial stands, warehouses and parking places.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

The concept of Semi-Rigid pavement was developed in France in 1960’s by a French construction company Jean
Lefebvre enterprise as a Resin Modified pavement (Salviacim, 1991) Many research works were conducted to
establish a suitable optimize design and examine the strength of the SRP. Though, most of the studies were
carried out on cement grout with different nomenclature. Huge number of studies was proposed for SRP with
different nomenclature but identical construction and working principle i.e. grouted macadam, Densiphalt and
Resin-modified pavement.

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Márcia Lopes Afonso et al (2015) analyzed the probability of utilizing reclaimed asphalt pavement to produce
cold mix porous asphalt along with the usage of cementitious grout contented with milled glass and Panasqueira
waste mud and geo-polymer grout. The applications of cold mix asphalt enhance ease of mixing and handling
along with rapid installations and eliminating the requirement of large-scale production plants and emissions and
energy saving. The aggregates used were mostly natural and altered granites and the binder having pen grade of
100/150 and softening point of 430C. On the other hand, 12 cementitious grouts were prepared along with 4 geo-
polymer grouts with varying proportions of w/c ratio, superplasticizer type and dosage and waste mud activated
with various concentrations of alkali solutions. the cementitious grouts were decomposed into 6 weaker and 6
stronger grouts based on w/c ratio and s-p dosage. The fresh grouts were tested with Viskomat NT rheometer.
The S30MG was selected from the 12 cementitious grouts which comprised 70% cement, and 30% milled glasses
because it yielded the required flow time. Later the Marshal stability and compressive strength properties were
determined in which the Hot mixtures with S30MG cement grout showed satisfactory results of 53.9 kN and 14.3
MPa respectively. (Márcia Lopes Afonso, 2015). [9]

Setyawan et al (2013) investigated the compressive strength of four types of grouts impregnated in to hot
limestone porous asphalt. The compressive strength at 28days of fly ash, silica fume-fly ash, pozament grouted
macadam were identical and about 13.82Mpa. Additionally, the effects of bitumen type based on silica fume
grout, effects of aggregates were also observed. (A. Setyawan, 2013). [1]
Lei et al (2012) came across the semi-rigid pavement in cooperation an additional gradation of 26.5mm sieve.
The mixing ratio for cement, sand and fly ash was 1:0.5:0.5 at w/c of 0.5 with SP 0.5% of cement. The
workability varied from 8s to 10s although the compressive and flexural strength of cement mortar at 7days was
more than 7.5MPa and 2.5MPa respectively. (Lei, 2012). [2]

Dong Qing Wu et al (2011) observed basic comparisons between the flexible, rigid and the semi-rigid pavement
with respect to rutting, skid resistance, resistant to chemicals, moisture, maintenance, life span construction and
installation which indicated that SRP plays satisfactory role in all aspects. The cement slurry was consisted of the
Chemilink SS-141 (high performance polymer modified cement mortar) which induced the workability,
compressive strength and flexural strength of 13-27 seconds, 120-140 MPa and 7-15 MPa. [3] Mohan Reddy et al
(2005) proposed the preliminary fabrication of semi-rigid pavement. This study highlights the procedure of
fabrication of open-graded asphalt concrete and cement slurry with its characterization. The cement grout was
designed with cement, silica and fly ash proportion as 73:7:20 with the water /binder ratio of 0.35to0.5.
Additionally, 100mm cubes of asphalt mix were prepared by Marshall Compacter with 25 blows per layer for two
layers. The 3days strength of 4.1MPa was obtained from a mix comprising; bitumen content of 4% and w/b ratio
of 0.4 and SP dosage of 2.5%. (B. Rama Mohan Reddy, 2005) [4]

I. L. Al-Qadi et al, (1994) Conducted study on Asphalt Portland Cement Concrete composite: Laboratory
Evaluation. This laboratory analysis comprised of Stability and flow, water susceptibility, chloride intrusion and
freezing and thawing. The result shows that APCCC reduces the intrusion of chloride ion by two to three times
compared to those of Portland Cement Concrete except for those of no moist level. [5]

Randy C. Ahlrich, Gary L. Anderton, et al (1991) conducted research study on construction and evaluation of
Resin Modified pavements, In which The US Army Engineer given task to construct the pavement which governs
the characteristics of both the pavements rigid pavements as well as flexible pavements. Then they introduced
new modified pavement named as Resin Modified pavement (RMP) later named as Semi Rigid Pavement (SRP).
The results indicate that Marshall Stability of semi-rigid pavement is twice that of flexible pavement and
compressive strength about 15 % that of Rigid pavement. [6]

III. MATERIALS
The materials used in this research are listed below:
1. Bitumen
2. Mineral Aggregates
3. Cement
4. Sand
5. Plasticizer

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Characterization of Bitumen : To check the quality and properties of the bitumen binder to be suitable for
design, following empirical tests were carried out and results are presented below in table 1.

Table 1 Various properties of bitumen binder

Test Description Test Result

Penetration (0.1mm) 60/70 grade
0
Softening Point C 46.5 0C
Ductility (cm) 139 cm
Flash Point 325 0C
Fire Point 370 0C
Specific Gravity 1.007

Mineral Aggregate : In this study Mineral aggregates were collected from Parker crush plant near toll plaza N-
55 Indus Highway, for evaluating the physical properties of mineral aggregates used in this research study,
aggregate gradation and physical properties tests were conducted

Grading Of Aggregates : For the sake of determination of particles size range present in the four different stock
piles, gradation was performed on the varying aggregates sizes i.e. 19-16 mm, 16-13 mm, 9-5 m and 5-0 mm.
Results of gradation tests are presented below in table 2.

Table 2 Results of Gradation for Various Aggregate Sizes

Sieve Size Sieve Size Achieved Blend Mid-Point of Specification

(inch) (mm) Grading Specification Limit
1 1/2// 37.5 100 100 100
1// 25.4 100 100 100
3/4// 19.1 97.2 95 100
1/2// 12.7 75.2 70 65-75
3/8// 9.5 53.8 57.5 50-65
#4 4.75 27.8 28 23-33
#8 2.36 14.7 13 9--17
#30 1.7 5.9 7.5 5--10
#200 0.075 1.9 2 1--3

Figure1 Particle Size Distribution Curve

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Physical test of aggregate : After carrying out the various tests for ensuring the aggregate properties, results are
presented in the below table 3.

Table 3 physical properties of aggregate

Test Description Result

Soundness (%) 2.0%
Specific gravity 2.52
Specific gravity (filler) 2.48
Crushing Value (%) 19.05%
Aggregate Impact Value (%) 18.45%
Los Angeles (%) 20.23%
Elongation Index (%) 28.24%
Flakiness Index (%) 24.52%

Cement : Cement is the main constituent of grouting material. This is responsible for the strength of grout. In
this research purpose Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) was selected and was purchased from local market.

Table 4 Properties of Cement

Properties of Cement

Consistency 32%
Initial Setting
51 Minutes
Time
Final Setting Time 152 Minutes

Sand : Sand should be clean, free from clay particles, plasticity index of 4 or less, and durable and meet the
“AASHTO C33” requirements; sand was used to increase the shear strength of the grout.

Plasticizer : To reduce the requirement of excess water and in order to increase the workability of the grout
plasticizer is to be used, and also increase the physical strength. The normal dosage of plasticizer is 0.80 to 1.8
liters/kg.
IV. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Conventional hot mix asphalt : For this research study Marshall Mix design method was selected to find out
the optimum bitumen content for this purpose fifteen samples were prepared using five different bitumen content
percentages from 3.5% to 5.5% at an interval of 0.5%. For preparation of HMA sample appropriate proportions
of aggregate blend and bitumen content was set to prepare the mix of 1200 grams at a temperature of 1600C to
1700C. And mixing was done at 1600C till the homogeneity of the mixture takes place. The mix was placed in
the mold of diameter 10m and 75 times hammering action were applied on each side of the sample. After the
compaction specimen were ready for unit weight, volumetric, Marshall Stability and flow values.

preparation of porous asphalt skeleton : Preparation of porous asphalt skeleton using optimum bitumen
content obtained from conventional hot mix asphalt was 2nd object of this research study, for this purpose
suitable proportion of mineral aggregate and optimum bitumen content were set to prepare the mix of 1200
grams at a temperature of 1600C to 1700C. And mixing was done at 1600C till the homogeneity of the mixture
takes place. The mix was placed in the mold of diameter 10m and 25 times hammering action were applied on
single side of the specimen in order to maintain the 25% to 35% air voids. After the compaction specimen were
ready impregnations of cement grout.

preparation of cement grout : A mix design analysis was conducted on several proportions of cement grout.
The batching percentages were conducted on trial and error basis and 2 formulations were tested. In our study,
the cement used was Lucky Cement which was a Portland cement, sand was locally available river sand passing
#200 sieve and the super plasticizer was SP-470 supplied by Sika.

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The materials (cement, sand, water and super-plasticizer) were weighed and mixed as per method discussed in
study. Immediately after mixing, the flow cone was held with one hand and outlet orifice was closed by plugging
finger. The cone was filled with cement grout up to 1000 ml fill line. The orifice of cone was opened by
removing finger and a stop watch was started simultaneously. The flow time for 1 liter of grout from orifice was
recorded as Marsh flow viscosity. The viscosity results of various formulations are given in table 4.15. And
graphically illustrated in Fig 2

FIGURE2 MIXING OF CEMENT

SLURRY
Table 5 viscosity results of various mix design of

Proportions by weight
Blend Superplasstisizer Marsh Flow
No Portland (%) time (sec)
Sand Water
Cement
01 1 0.5 0.4 2 96
02 1 0.5 0.45 2 16
03 1 0.5 0.5 2 12
04 1 0.5 0.55 2 9
05 1 0.5 0.6 2 7

The viscosity results of mix containing water cement ratio of 0.5 was in proportion to the required specification.
The required flow time is 8 to 12 seconds. The superplasticizer was kept constant at 1 % for optimization of
strength and cost. The mix proportion of 1: 0.5 at 2% of SP was selected for grouting purpose.

V. LABORATORY PREPARATION OF SAMPLE

The Semi-rigid pavements samples were prepared after the design of; open graded hot mix asphalt and cement
grouts. Now it was a time to impregnate the grouting material into the open graded asphalt. For this purpose, the
open graded asphalt samples were placed on vibrating table keeping vibrating table switched on and the grouting
material continually poured until the voids were filled with the grouts and then samples were left for drying. For
the evaluation of initial setting after one day, samples were taken out from the mold and left for air drying for one
hour then immersed in water for 3 days of curing. After the completion of curing, samples were taken out from
water and compressive strength test was conducted by using Universal Testing Machine and results were
evaluated.
VI. RESULTS
A. Conventional Properties Of Hot Mix Asphalt (Hma) : Following table6 shows the results of compacted
asphalt mix, which contains results obtained from vloumetrics of asphalt, maximum dry density, stability and

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Table 6 Conventional properties of HMA

flow of compacted asphalt mix
Bitumen
3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5
Content %
Stability (kgf) 1408 1430 1415 1369.33 1226.33
Flow (mm) 10.93 13.33 14 15.2 16.04
Gmb 2.237 2.242 2.267 2.256 2.229
VMA (%) 14.337 14.514 14.687 14.952 16.412
VTM (%) 6.558 5.595 3.940 3.754 4.252
VFA (%) 54.258 65.451 72.031 74.893 76.092
Gmm 2.394 2.377 2.360 2.344 2.328

B. Volumetric and Mechanical Properties of Marshall Mixtures: Figure3 shows the relationship
between stability and bitumen content; from the figure it can be observed that with the increase of bitumen
content maximum stability of 1430 kgs is achieved at 4% bitumen content. Further increase of bitumen content
decreases stability value linearly. First rise in the curve shows increasing stability value with increasing bitumen
content due to the sufficient coating and reduction in air voids. After that point stability value is continuously
decreasing because beyond this optimum point, bitumen is in excessive amount which causes bleeding and
reduces the strength of mix. Figure4 shows the relationship between unit weight and bitumen content; from
figure it can be observed that unit weight of asphalt mixture is maximum i.e. 2.267 at 4.5% bitumen content.
Further increase of bitumen content beyond 4.5% content decreases value of unit weight linearly. First rise in the
curve is due to the sufficiently increasing coating with increasing bitumen content and filling voids in mineral
aggregate and ultimately increasing unit weight. Further, volume of mixture is decreasing due to decrease in air
voids and therefore increasing unit weight. Beyond optimum content, further increase of bitumen content results
in bleeding of the mixture because voids of mineral aggregates are almost being filled with bitumen and due to
this insufficient air voids left, results in the poor mixing and bonding and ultimately reducing unit weight.

Figure5 shows the relationship between percentage of air voids and bitumen content; from the figure it can be
observed that percentage of air voids are decreasing linearly as the percentage of bitumen content is increasing.
At 3.5% of bitumen content percentage of air voids is 6.5% whereas at 4.5% bitumen content percentage of air
voids is 4%. The decrease in the air void content is due to the increasing % of bitumen content, filling voids in
mineral aggregates and reducing air trapped between voids of aggregate. Normally the curve linearly decreases
with increasing bitumen content but in our case, it is again increasing in air voids after the optimum content, this
is may be due to the defective manual compaction Figure6. Shows the relationship between the flow value and
varying bitumen content; flow value is the plastic deformation of the mixture at the failure point. With the
increased bitumen content this value increases because the excessive bitumen causes bleeding and air voids filled
with higher content of bitumen causes flow and sliding of fines in the mixture. It is evident from the above figure

5. That flow is linearly increasing with increasing bitumen content.

Figur7. Shows the correlation between voids filled with asphalt and asphalt content; as it is evident that when
bitumen content is increasing the voids of aggregates are increase in bitumen percentage and ultimately a linear
relationship is achieved as shown above.

Figure8. Shows the relationship between the VMA and bitumen content; Though, VMA depends upon the nature
of aggregate type and its properties and it varies from aggregate to aggregate but it can be seen from the above
figure that with the increasing bitumen content voids in mineral aggregate is reducing

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Calculation for Optimum Bitumen Content

Using three graphs i.e. Stability v/s B.C, unit weight v/s B.C and % air Voids v/s B.C.
• Bitumen content at maximum stability = 4.0%
• Bitumen content at maximum unit weight = 4.56%
• Bitumen content at 4% air voids = 4.5 %
OBC = (4.0+4.56+4.5)/3
OBC = 4.35 %
For open graded hot mix asphalt concrete optimum bitumen content found as 4.35%, there proportion of mix for
the porous asphalt concrete skeleton given below.

Table 7 revised properties at optimum bitumen content

Values at Optimum
Properties
Bitumen Content
Stability (kgf) 1430
Unit weight (g/cm3) 2.256
Flow in 0.01” 13.5
VTM (%) 4.49
VMA (%) 14.56
VFA (%) 67.52

MARSHALL STABILITY (COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH TEST): The grouted samples after curing were subjected to
Marshall Compression to determine the stability of the sample. The samples were submerged in water bath at 60
0C for initial ageing about 30 minutes and later placed in Universal testing machine. The complete assembly is
placed on compression machine the machine was started and stability dial gauge readings were recorded. The dial
gauge readings were multiplied by factors to get the stability values. Table 8 shows the Marshall Stability Test
Results of cement grouted Semi-rigid pavement.

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Table 8 Compressive strength of Semi-rigid Pavement

Compressive strength of Semi-rigid pavement

Curing
No UTM readings Stability (kgf) average
days
1 37080 3775.97
2 7days 37750 3848.11 3885.83
3 39530 4025.46
4 39721 4049.03
5 14days 44124 4493.28 4261.98
6 41585 4239.04
7 63250 6440.94
8 28days 44140 4499.49 4580.29
9 45408 4624.03

Table8 shows the compressive strength results of semi-rigid pavement, at 3 different curing day’s effect, 3
samples were placed at 7days curing and the compressive strength is 3885.83, 14days curing samples gives the
compressive strength of 4261.98, and 28 days compressive strength is 4580.29. From the above table8 it can be
observed that 7 days curing strength almost give 85% compressive strength of 28 days strength. It means after
7days of construction road can be opened for traffic.

VII. CONCLUSION
As compare to cement grout of RMP (Randy C Ahlrich, 1991), the compressive strength of cement grout is 57%
greater. The Marshall stability values of 7 days cured sample was 2.72 times the conventional values of flexible
pavement. The Marshall stability values of 14 days cured sample was 3 times the conventional values of flexible
pavement. The Marshall stability values of 28 days cured sample was 3.2 times the conventional values of
flexible pavement. The targeted strength of specimen can be achieved by controlling the flow and the strength
characteristics of cement grout.
It can be concluded that at 7days cured strength is almost 85% of 28 days cured strength; it means that after 7days
of construction road can be opened for traffic.

VIII. RECOMMENDATION
Although the design and investigation of SRP is conducted in terms of strength but sufficient research needs to be
steered for fully development. Nonetheless, following recommendation are suggested for the future research. The
mix design of Open Graded Asphalt Concrete can be altered to come across more precise design in terms of
strength and volumetric by proposing various type and gradation of aggregates, different type and contents of
bitumen, different mix design methods i.e. Super pave. The mix design of highly workable cement grout can be
altered by different mix proportions, constituents and more precisely by the dosage of SP. Investigation of
parameters relating to strength, skid resistance, durability and indirect tensile stiffness modulus to come across
more precise behavior of SRP.
REFERENCES
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aprons.
4. Rama Mohan Reddy, A. L. (2005). Fabrication of cement-grouted asphalt concrete for semi-flexible
pavements.
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8. Gerardo W. Flintsch, B. K. (2008). Composite pavement systems: synthesis of design and construction
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