Effect of adding dune sand to bituminous concrete intended for wearing courses

The 20th century was marked by the development of road infrastructure around the world, which necessitated a great need for pavement materials which in turn had to meet certain geotechnical criteria such as hardness, grain size and cleanliness. A traditional pavement body generally includes gravel, but unfortunately these materials are not available in some areas. From there was born the need to use local materials, such as tuff and dune sand, which exist in abundance and which are inexpensive and which have proven their effectiveness in road construction. The semi grained bituminous concrete SGBC intended for wearing layers, known by the name BC 0/14, generally is prepared by mixing two components: aggregates and bitumen. The design of this material considers several criteria related to one hand to the aggregates, namely mechanical characteristics, shape, and cleanliness of stones, the blue value of the fine, the particle size of the mixture (% passing through), the choice of the bitumen grade and mechanical performance as well the water resistance of asphalt concrete 0/14. The present work aims to study the influence of the substitution of the fraction 0/3 mm of the crushed sand (usually used in this type of materials) by fine dune sand, on the mechanical performance including Duriez and Marshall Stability and water resistance.