Geotechnical and petrographic properties of carbonate sedimentary rocks from Sasaj region (Ionian Zone) and their use as aggregates for road pavement

Abstract

This paper is a part of the master’s thesis with the title “Geotechnical and petrographic properties of carbonate sedimentary rocks from different zones of Albania regarding their use as aggregates for road pavement” where this topic presents a particular method of study of limestones and dolomite aggregates from the point of view of their petrographic characteristics, the petrography being an important working tool which proves to be indispensable alongside the classical geotechnical study currently used in Albania. Our work was born from the need to demonstrate that the studies carried out by engineering, geotechnics and geomechanics should not lack synthetic reports on the different types of aggregates used in Albania, especially those of carbonate origin. Moreover, our goal was to take a step forward to fill this gap by accurately correlating the general geological knowledge and the lithological and petrographic characteristics of carbonate rocks with the engineering properties of the aggregates produced from these types of rocks. It is well known that petrography is focusing on details invisible to the naked eye, and therefore, for rock materials selected for the production of aggregates, this microscopic analysis is also necessary, as well as other laboratory analyses, if necessary to verify the stability of these aggregates. Concretely, in this paper we will present a part of our results which show the methods which we used in the analysis of materials from samples of carbonate rocks coming from Sasaj region, one of the four carbonate rock formations that we studied in our master thesis, these formations belonging to four different geological tectonic zones of Albania: Mirdita, Albanian Alpes, Kruja and the Ionian zones. The complete material will be the subject of a more detailed paper for a high impact international journal.