Determinación del grado de absorción de los materiales áridos provenientes de la cuenca del río Paute y Jubones y su incidencia en los costos de producción de mezclas asfálticas

Abstract

By means of laboratory testing, this research is about the characterization of three aggregates; two from quarries in Paute county, mainly replacement material from the shores of Paute river and quarries from the same basin such as Virginia mine, and a third material exploited from the Jubones river shores, in Huascachaca’s area, Santa Isabel county. These are the main areas where the aggregates are extracted in Azuay province. As part of the characterization of these materials we have determined their size distribution, specific gravity, and absorption percentage. With this aim, we have used the methods defined by the national norm of the Ministerio de Transporte y Obras Públicas del Ecuador. Based on these data, we performed a Marshall test to estimate the optimal percentage of asphalt used in the hot asphaltic mixture. Since we used three different types of aggregates, we ended up with nine Marshall tests with four different percentages of asphalt each and three briquettes, in total 108 briquettes analyzed. Finally, with these last results we carried out a deep analysis of the production costs based on the absorption of the studied aggregates by finding a relationship between the aggregates absorption and the costs of the asphaltic mixture as a function of the aggregates origin.