Investigation of Dolomite Aggregate Long-Term Cementation and Its Potential Advantage for Building Roads

The objective of the proposed research is to systematically study the effects of chemical, mineralogical and physical properties of dolomitic aggregate fines on the long-term performances of both unbound and chemically stabilized aggregate base/subbase materials. The scope will entail a comprehensive geological survey and review of aggregate quarry maps to characterize dolomite aggregate compositions in Illinois followed by the selection of representative source samples to be studied for mechanisms responsible for cementation and significant strength gain. Because MgO comes mostly from dolomite in Illinois quarries, percent MgO in fines could be a valuable indicator of dolomite purity. Advanced materials characterization tests to be conducted on the dolomite aggregate sources will include X-Ray diffraction (XRD), X-Ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Raman imaging (Polavaram and Garg, 2021ab) of the fines fraction. The study scope will entail short- and long-term performance monitoring of samples tested for unconfined compressive strength, and samples tested after a conditioning period to trigger precipitation-dissolution delayed reactions (by soaking samples and exposing them to freeze-thaw cycles prior to testing). After different periods of conditioning, the characterization tests will be conducted to identify changes in the phase compositions and mineralogy that may be contributing to cementation and strength gain.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $447926
• Contract Numbers:

  R27-248

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Illinois Department of Transportation

  Bureau of Materials and Physical Research
  126 East Ash Street
  Springfield, IL  United States  62704-4766
• Managing Organizations:

  University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

  Illinois Center for Transportation
  1611 Titan Drive
  Rantoul, IL  United States  61866
• Principal Investigators:

  Tutumluer, Erol

  Garg, Nishant

• Start Date: 20220701
• Expected Completion Date: 20241231
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aggregates; Bonding; Compressive strength; Dolomite; Fines (Materials); Pavement performance
• Subject Areas: Highways; Materials; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01850661
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Illinois Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: R27-248
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Jun 29 2022 4:35PM