TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF THE PHILIPPINES

938 AURORA BOULEVARD, CUBAO, QUEZON CITY

PRELIM EXAM:
AGGREGATES, ASPHALT AND CEMENT

Submitted by:
VASO, MARINETTE B.
CE51FB2

Submitted to:
ENGR. RICARDO VIBAS

Date Submitted:
JULY 20, 2018
VASO, MARINETTE B. REFLECTION #1
CE501 – CE51FB2 JUNE 22, 2018

AGGREGATES

Aggregates are inert granular material such as sand, gravel, or crushed stone that, along

with water and Portland cement, are an essential ingredient in concrete.

For a good concrete mix, aggregates need to be clean, hard, strong particles free of absorbed

chemicals or coatings of clay and other fine materials that could cause the deterioration of concrete.

The importance of washing the aggregates was to remove the soil particles, sand and clay attached

to the rocks to provide a better bonding for the concrete mix. Aggregates, which account for 60 to

75 percent of the total volume of concrete, are divided into two distinct categories--fine and coarse.

Fine aggregates generally consist of natural sand or crushed stone with most particles passing

through a 3/8-inch sieve. Coarse aggregates are any particles greater than 0.19 inch, but generally

range between 3/8 and 1.5 inches in diameter. Gravels constitute the majority of coarse aggregate

used in concrete with crushed stone making up most of the remainder.

Natural gravel and sand are usually dug or dredged from a pit, river, lake, or seabed.

Crushed aggregate is produced by crushing quarry rock, boulders, cobbles, or large-size gravel.

Recycled concrete is a viable source of aggregate and has been satisfactorily used in granular

subbases, soil-cement, and in new concrete.

After harvesting, aggregate is processed: crushed, screened, and washed to obtain proper

cleanliness and gradation. Aggregates were sieve in a certain size/grading which was the standard

size of an aggregate. Other aggregates that do not pass the sieve will be crushed again until it

reaches the standard size. The aggregates will then be washed carefully and stock piled in a certain

area on the plant before it will be hauled by trucks for selling.

If necessary, a benefaction process such as jigging or heavy media separation can be used

to upgrade the quality. Once processed, the aggregates are handled and stored to minimize

segregation and degradation and prevent contamination. Aggregates strongly influence concrete's

freshly mixed and hardened properties, mixture proportions, and economy. Consequently,

selection of aggregates is an important process.

VASO, MARINETTE B. REFLECTION #2
CE501 – CE51FB2 JUNE 29, 2018

ASPHALT

Asphalt is a dark bituminous substance that is found in natural beds and is also obtained as

a residue in petroleum refining and that consists chiefly of hydrocarbons. It is used in making roads

and pavements. Using of asphalt is classified as a flexible pavement. Asphalt pavement is very

advantageous since it can carry loads and able to return to its original shape without damaging it.

In the video clips, different process of making asphalt were shown, some were just similar

but different on the process depending on the manufacturer. The first video shows how they make

asphalt using recycled asphalt materials. Burning less fuel means less emission. When using

asphalt pavement, uniform density means much longer life that is why it is preferred in most

highways. One disadvantage of asphalt pavement was the maintenance cost compared to

concrete/rigid pavement. In U.S. most of the roads uses asphalt pavement and Texas leads in this

area of 68.3 million tons of asphalt was used every year.

The process of producing asphalt was shown on animated clips. First, the aggregates were

transported to cold aggregate feeding system with different gradings and then uniformly

distributed at the horizontal belt conveyor which contains the mixture of different size aggregates.

Second, aggregates were sieve to eliminate the aggregates which do not match the standard size.

Third, aggregates were carried in the drying drum or aggregate drying and heating system. The

drying drum is divided into four sections: conditioning, showering, combustion and discharge

section. The conditioning section where aggregates are fed into the inner dryer and start forming

a curtain, the showering section where aggregates form a full drawn curtain, the combustion

section where burner flame is maximized to heat up the aggregates within a short while and the

discharge section where the hot aggregates get discharged out of the dryer. Fourth, after the

aggregates were discharged, they were then transported to dust collection system to remove the

dust particles from the drying process. The dust collected will be stored in dust silos for recycling.

Fifth, the aggregates were then transported to the mixing tower through the air slides and then

sieved in different diameters. The sieved aggregates were homogeneously separated. Sixth, the

mixture of the aggregates was proportioned depending on the design mix. The mixture of

proportioned different sized aggregates was transported. To ensure the product at high standard,
the mixture was controlled and monitored in a control system using computer software. Seventh,

the bitumen supplying system will now supply bitumen and transported it to the mixing container.

Bitumen will be weighed first in the bitumen bin to ensure accurate proportioning. The bitumen

was mixed through bitumen spray pump. The outcome of the aggregates will be color black due

to the bitumen. After that, the asphalt is ready to be transported to the desired dealer of the

company.

It is also showed how asphalt pavement were made from a rubber crumb of asphalt for

smooth application with blending engineering crumb. The asphalt was compacted using a roller

until it meets the specification with no sticking issue.

VASO, MARINETTE B. REFLECTION #3
CE501 – CE51FB2 JULY 6, 2018

CEMENT

Cement is a soft gray powder that is mixed with water and other substances to make

concrete. Cement is a powder of alumina, silica, lime, iron oxide and magnesium oxide burned

together in a kiln and finely pulverized and used as an ingredient of mortar and concrete.

The cement plant videos showed the processes of making/producing cement step by step.

Starting from raw material, limestone is the basic raw material used in manufacturing of cement.

Good quality cement grade limestone is abundantly available in mines with the factory premises,

which is spread over an area of 400 hectares. Blasting, limestone is obtained from mines through

the process of heavy blasting conducted under strict supervision and safety precautions. The

limestone obtained from the mining area should have a superior quality that it removes the need

to add clay or any additional raw material.

After harvesting the raw material, it was then transported to the plant where several

processes will follow. Crushing, the limestone in the form of huge stone is loaded in dumpers and

transported to the crushers. The machine is used to crush the huge stones into smaller and

manageable chunks that are 20 mm in size. It can be also that 1.5 meters of boulders be crused to

30-100 mm. Quality check, limestone obtained from the crusher undergoes a laborious quality

check using machine and analyser. Reject belt conveyor, the engineers at the plant ensure that

unsuitable limestone is dump using reject conveyor belt. Circular pre-blending, homogenization

for the right consistency. Grinding, using an accurate weighing mechanism, the material is fed into

the roller mill. It is a vertical steel mill with huge rollers used for grinding the material. Blending

silo, powder form of raw material of different grade is mixed homogeneously in the blending silo

with the help of air slides.

Pre-heating the ground raw material is fed into a six-storage preheater, where it mets the

hot gases rising from the kiln. The pre-heating of material before the calcination stage helps to

save energy. Calcination is the most difficult stage in cement manufacturing process. The raw

material is fed into a kiln which is a huge rotating furnace. Using coal pet coke as fuel, the kiln

factory heats the raw material to a temperature of 1400 °C. Cooling, subsequent the to the intense
heating, the raw material is now sent to cooler that brings the temperature of the material down to

200 °C. Sudden cooling of the materials results in the formation of grey-coloured modules known

as clinkers. Cement milling, clinker and gypsum are fed to cement mill in definite proportion.

Transportation and packing, cement was packed into bags with the help of automatic

electronic packers supplied. The cement is then housed in storage silos from where it is

hydraulically and mechanically extracted and transported to facilities where it will be packaged in

sacks or supplied in bulk. In either case it can be shipped by rail car, freight truck or ship.