COURAGE - Construction with Unbound Road Aggregates in Europe
Overview
Background & policy context:
More than 95% of European road pavements comprise an asphalt layer
covering structural layers and foundations of unbound granular material.
This granular material, which is made of quarried aggregates, forms, on
average, more than 75% of these road pavements. Yet its behaviour is
poorly understood and has been little researched, especially when compared
to asphalt and concrete. Therefore, this project aims to achieve a real
advance in structural road pavement design and performance by
investigating this material in some depth.
Objectives:
The objectives are:
- To provide a fundamental and universal mechanical behaviour framework for unbound granular materials drawing on functional and simplified laboratory tests.
- To produce a new, rapid and practical assessment approaches based on this framework.
- To deliver a fundamentally acceptable classification system for granular materials.
- To collect measurements of real, in-situ, mechanical performance thereby assessing effects of site and climate variations.
- To produce models of the mechanical behaviour based on the both laboratory and in-situ results.
- To propose better means of use of unbound granular materials using experience from the above objectives.
- To draft guidelines for testing, modelling and incorporation of unbound granular materials into structural and foundation pavement layers.
Methodology:
The purpose of the testing is to describe the materials in ways, which will permit traditional, index results to be compared with descriptions based upon a sound fundamental tests. Thus, the possibility of using index testing as rapid, commercially practical proxies for fundamental assessments will be investigated. The Testing is in three forms:
- Simple - both conventional and unconventional.
- Fundamental - usually more complex.
- Simulative
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