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ABSTRACT
Indispensable to civil engineering, aggregates notably allow for the formation of the skeleton of hydraulic concretes or the structure of pavement layers. This article provides a complete study of aggregates by presenting their origins and characteristics. Aggregates can be natural, artificial or recycled. Where natural, they borrow the igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic properties and characteristics of the rocks they come from. However, only aggregates with interesting geotechnical performances can be valorized.
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Read the articleAUTHORS
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Pierre DUPONT: CNAM engineer - Expert in charge of aggregates at SETRA (Service d'Études Techniques des Routes et Autoroutes)
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Georges AUSSEDAT: Head of technical affairs at Union Nationale des Producteurs de Granulats
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Yannick DESCANTES: Doctorate in Civil Engineering. State Public Works Engineer - Head of aggregate testing at the Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées (France)
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Jeanne-Sylvine GUEDON: Doctorate in petrography-volcanology. State Public Works Engineer - Head of the Geology, Rock Mechanics and Environmental Geotechnics Section at the Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées (France)
INTRODUCTION
Aggregates are an essential raw material for building and civil engineering, without which it would be impossible to build structures with today's construction techniques. Aggregates form the backbone of hydraulic concrete and pavement layers, and the quality of housing, engineering structures and roads largely depends on them.
Aggregates are granular materials up to 125 mm in size, plus rockfill larger than 125 mm but weighing 15 t or less. They are designated by their smallest and largest dimensions d and D, the interval d/D being called granular class. This designation admits that some elements can be retained on a square-meshed sieve of aperture D (D sieve) and that others can pass through the d sieve, within the standardized limits allowed.
Three major aggregate families have been defined:
sands, where d = 0 and
;
gravel, where
and
;
the bass, where d = 0 and
.
;
and
;
.
The fines constitute the granular fraction passing through the 0.063 mm sieve.
The aggregates most commonly used in building and...
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Aggregates. Origins and characteristics
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