Abstract
As a secondary material, quarry fines are a valuable material to be reused for many purposes in civil engineering projects. The aggregate source depletion, especially the lack of high quality aggregates as expected in the future, as well as the demand for a carbon-neutral society and circular economy, also promotes the high-volume utilization of secondary materials such as quarry fines. The aim of this study is to do a feasibility assessment including a series of laboratory tests and analyses to evaluate the properties of quarry fine materials to determine if this type of material could be qualified as pavement construction material in high volume. The gradation information obtained from both sieving and hydrometer tests indicates the frost susceptibility of unstabilized quarry fines, therefore frost heave tests were performed and which further suggest the necessity of stabilization to improve its properties for pavement applications, especially in structural layers such as base, subbase, or filter layers. Some other general information and properties of unbound quarry fines, especially regarding their validity for application in pavement engineering are also investigated and discussed.
Highlights
One big challenge in road engineering is the economic and ecological use of soil and aggregate materials
The depth of frost penetration remained stable at about 50.0mm from the time when the throughout the whole specimen was stable
A feasibility assessment including a series of laboratory tests and analyses were conducted to evaluate the properties of quarry fine materials to determine if this type of material could be qualified for pavement base, subbase, or filter layers, especially in high volume applications, as well as to evaluate the durability of quarry fines in term of frost susceptibility
Summary
One big challenge in road engineering is the economic and ecological use of soil and aggregate materials. The design of pavement layers in Finland is mainly based on empirical methods, which are presented as tabulated model structures [1]. This has led to a situation where high quality virgin aggregates have been used in excess and the use of secondary materials has been challenging [2]. Road and street construction consumes about 50 million tons of non-renewable aggregates and the amount of CO2 emissions caused is 0.8 million tons annually [5]. It is of vital importance to significantly increase the utilization of “waste” materials
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