Portuguese unbound granular materials characterisation using cyclic triaxial tests

Abstract

Crushed materials with extensive granulometry – unbound granular materials (UGM) – are often used as unbound granular layers of road pavements, namely as granular sub-base and base. In spite of several studies having already been undertaken, the behaviour of these materials on pavement layers has not been sufficiently characterised, especially due to reasons connected to the heterogeneity of the rock masses from which they come. This has special importance for Portuguese pavement technology and has led to the development of two PhD theses in different schools (University of Coimbra and Technical University of Lisbon) using different approaches but both aiming at the characterisation of the aptitude of the same types of material (crushed limestone) being used as UGM. In addition, in the same terms, one of the theses has also characterised a crushed granite material. Basically, both theses included laboratory testing using cyclic triaxial tests and in situ mechanical characterisation to establish behaviour models for the crushed materials investigated. This paper describes the main results obtained from both theses and discusses the results on an integrated basis, pointing out the main indications that can be extracted from both in terms of the use of UGM on Portuguese pavement technology.