E.J.
DICKINSON
THE DESIGN OF
BITUMINOUS PLANT MIXES FOR
ROAD AND AIRFIELD PAVING
ABSTRACT
The formulation of dense bituminous concrete type mixes
by the conventional procedures of using modified 'max-
imum density' aggregate gradings and empirical
laboratory compaction and mechanical testing pro-
cedures (such as those of the Marshall method) is out-
lined. The advantages and limitations of such procedures
are indicated, particularly in relation to the degree of
compaction which is obtained in the mix at laydown and in
service. The design of porous 'friction' courses with deep
macrotexture for improved skid resistance at high vehicle
speed is also discussed. More basic design procedures
founded on service requirements and the packing proper-
ties, shape and surface texture of available mineral ag-
gregates are then considered and progress by the
Australian Road Research Board in this direction indi-
cated.
INTRODUCTION
Thin layers of bituminous plant mix have been used
for many years in Australia for the surfacing of pave-
ments and, more recently, greater depths have been
laid to form part of the load spreading structure.
In this paper attention is directed to the design
of the mix composition (aggregate grading and ag-
gregate, filler and binder proportions) and it is
assumed that the quality of the mix constituents is
acceptable. Design of the mix composition (and, to a
certain extent, the acceptable quality of the consti-
tuents) depends not only on the situation of the
material in the pavement but also on the climatic
conditions and the expected traffic at the site.
The general requirements of the material are:
(a) ability to resist shoving in hot weather under the
imposed traffic;
(b) durability;
(c) air and water impermeability (with the exception
of porous 'friction' courses on the surface); and
(d) ability to follow small movements in the pave-
ment without cracking (flexibility).
Special requirements of the surface course are:
(1) good skid resistance characteristics when wet;
Paper presented to the Symposium and Workshop on
Design and Construction of Bituminous Concrete Pave-
ments for Roads and Airfields, November 9-10.
32
(2) good light reflectance properties, particularly
when wet; and
(3) good resistance to wear.
Bitumen of petroleum origin has generally been
used as the binder and, although it is an
economically viable adhesive for large-scale use in
paving materials, it suffers from the disadvantage
that its deformation behaviour is very dependent on
temperature and its tensile breaking strength is low.
This, and the availability of locally-produced ag-
gregates, impose important limitations on the
design of the bitumen-mineral aggregate composite
and the composition finally selected is often a com-
promise between the various requirements listed
above.
Developments in the laboratory design of the
composite have generally followed developments in
the understanding of the packing properties of
mineral aggregates, and the development of
laboratory compaction procedures which bear
some relation to the compaction obtained at
laydown and in the pavement after trafficking.
Because of the important requirements of
durability and air and water impermeability, attention
has been directed mainly to dense composites, and
the design of these will be considered first.
DESIGN OF CONTINUOUSLY GRADED
DENSE MIXES
Laboratory design of continuously graded dense
plant mix has been based on the work of Fuller and
Thompson (1907) who determined, by experiment,
relationships between the particle size distribution
(PSD) of mineral aggregates and their packing pro-
perties. In order to obtain a high density of packing,
they found that the PSD should conform to the rela-
tionship
M2 [d2
M1 d1
where M, and M, are the percentages of aggregate
passing sieves with openings d, and d, respectively
and n has a value between 0.4 and 0.6.
AUSTRALIAN ROAD RESEARCH, Vol 8, No. 2, June 1978
 DICKINSON — PLANT MIXES FOR ROADS AND AIRFIELDS

Having obtained a 'near maximum' density PSD, THE MARSHALL METHOD

the next consideration has been the partial filling of
the voids in this packed aggregate with bitumen.
The volume/mass relationship of a typical com-
pacted continuously graded dense plant mix is
shown in Fig. 1. The voids in the mineral aggregate
(VMA) should not be completely filled with bitumen;
otherwise, the compacted mix becomes unstable
and is easily sheared when warm.
— A air voids 4.0%
VM
(17.7 °/D
Total vol.
This method was developed by the U.S. Corps of
Engineers who chose a testing machine and method
of design conceived by Bruce Marshall of the
Mississippi State Highway Department (McFadden
and Ricketts 1948).
The essential features of the testing procedure
are shown in Fig. 3. Trial mixes covering a range of
bitumen contents are impact compacted in a mould
Yo by mass with a standard hammer. Usually, 50 hammer blows
on the two opposing faces of the cylindrical speci-
6.0 men are specified but, for surface courses for sites
where there is a large number of heavy vehicles with
high tyre pressures, 75 hammer blows on each face
might be used.
52.0
TEST AND APPARATUS COMPACTION
NORMAL TEST
PROCEDURE METHOD

MARSHALL
LOAD

34.6 Specimen compressed

at 51 mm/min at 60 C
Impact by Marshall
hammer (4.54 kg falling
-,
1:::\ , Specimen
Maximum load -,_ 102 mm dia through 457 mm).
(stability) and defor- x 64 mm high Number of blows
mation at maximum •._ normally 50 or 75 on
load (flow value) each face
4-- 7.4 determined

Fig. 1 — Volume/mass relationship for a typical compacted MODIFIED HUBBARD-FIELD

bituminous concrete
LOAD

Specimen extruded at Tamping with finishing

a rate of 61 mm/min at
60C. Maximum force
Il 47_,.__A Specimen
compressive load of
45 kN for two
Given an acceptable aggregate grading and determined -- It 152 mm dia minutes

volumetric proportions of aggregate, bitumen and ' 1,4 x 76 mm high

air voids, the next design step has been to assess

the resistance of the compacted mix to shearing
(shoving). Various mechanical tests were
Fig. 3 —Common mechanical tests for bituminous mixtures
developed to do this and those of Marshall (McFad-
den and Ricketts 1948) and Hubbard and Field
(1935) are the most familiar.
The air void content of the cylinders is deter-
A flow chart of the entire design procedure is mined by weighing them in air and in water (waxed
shown in Fig. 2. There are no established tests for specimens are sometimes used) and then determin-
assessing the workability, compactibility and resis- ing their solid density by breaking them up (after
tance to segregation of the different particle sizes warming) and finding the weight of water displaced
when handled and these important characteristics by the disintegrated mix. The VMA is the fractional
are assessed subjectively during the laboratory volume of the cylinder occupied by air and bitumen.
handling and later in trial mixes. Both the Hubbard-
Field method and the Marshall method are used in Resistance to shoving when warm is determined
Australia, but the latter is more popular. by heating the cylinders to 60°C in a water bath and
then compressing them diametrically at a constant
SELECT speed. The maximum force developed during com-
(al COARSE AGGREGATES
lb/ FINE AGGREGATES
cl FILLER
pression (Marshall Stability) and the movement to
reach this maximum force (Marshall Flow) are
DETERMINE SELECT
measured.
COMBINATION TO NEW AGGREGATES
PRODUCE 'NEAR
MAX DENSITY'
GRADING Typical test results for a series of mixtures are
shown in Fig. 4. As the bitumen content increases,
MAKE UP A SERIES
OF TRIAL MIXES Marshall Stability and density pass through a max-
WITH A RANGE OF
BITUMEN CONTENTS imum. Marshall Flow and the percentage of the VMA
WORKABILITY
AND COMPACTIBILITY
SUBJECTIVELY
filled with bitumen increases and the air voids
ASSESSED
COMPACT ALTER PROPORTIONS
OF COARSE AND FINE
decrease.
MIXES UNDER SELECTED
AGGREGATES AND/OR
AND CONTROLLED CONDITIONS
FILLER

Examples of specification by the Marshall

MEASURE AIR VOIDS;
VMA AND STABILITY design procedure are given in Table I (airfield sur-
TO SHOVING WHEN
WARM facings) and Table II (road surfacings) (NAASRA
1978). In both cases there is a requirement of
ACCEPT minimum stability, maximum flow and a range of air
MIX WITH 'OPTIMUM'
BITUMEN CONTENT
void content with an absolute minimum of air voids
of 3 or 4 per cent. Both specifications also control
Fig. 2 — Design flow chart the fraction of the VMA filled with bitumen.

AUSTRALIAN ROAD RESEARCH, Vol. 8, No. 2, June 1978

33
 DICKINSON — PLANT MIXES FOR ROADS AND AIRFIELDS

10 8 From test data such as that shown in Fig.4 a

bitumen content is chosen such that the require-

FLOWVA LUE(60 C )-mm

ments of a specification are met. This is usually
STAB ILITY(60 C) - k N

9 6
0 done by taking the following bitumen contents and

°
calculating their mean:
°

8 4 (a) mean for limits of percentage of air voids;

7 2
a b
6 0
5 6 7 5
2.48 6
9 during extrusion is measured. Like the Marshall pro-
(b) maximum stability;
(c) maximum density; and
(d) mean of limits for per cent voids filled (if used).
THE MODIFIED HUBBARD-FIELD METHOD
6 7 The essential features of this method are shown in
Fig. 3. Mix compaction is by tamping, followed by
compression and the cylindrical specimen at 60°C
is then extruded axially through a ring at a constant
speed. The maximum force (stability) developed

f(\ -o
cedure, design criteria are based on specification of
a minimum stability, range of air void content and
range of VMA filled with bitumen.

TABLE I
2.36 AIRFIELD PAVEMENTS
5 6 7 5 6 7
Marshall Design Criteria
BINDER CONTENT - Modified from U.S. Corps of Engineers Specification
per cent
Traffic Tyre Pressure (kPa) Up to 700 In excess
Cl)
of 700
O
Specimen Compaction (blows each end) 50 75
• 90
t— cc Test Property and Type of Mix Min. Max. Min. Max.
<
O 0
w z Stability (kN)
cr E 80 Bituminous concrete surface course 2.2 8.0
Binder or basecourse 2.2 8.0
<
Flow (mm)
O 0 70 Bituminous concrete surface course 3.0 4.0
w 5 6 7
Binder or basecourse 5.0 4.0
< BINDER CONTENT
I— U- Air Voids (°o)
2 per cent
Bituminous concrete surface course 4 7 4 7
0 Binder or basecourse 4 10 4 10
U.1
0- Voids Binder Filled (°o)
Bituminous concrete surface course 65 80 65 80
Fig. 4 — Typical Marshall testing results Binder or basecourse 60 80 60 80

TABLE II
ROAD PAVEMENTS
Marshall Design Criteria
(50 Blow Cornpactive Effort)
Maximum Size
of Aggregate
(mm) 7 10 13 20

Property Min. Max. Min. Max. Min. Max. Min. Max.

Stability
(DRN) 5.5 6.5 6.5 6.5

Flow (mm) 2.0 3.5 2.0 3.5 2.0 3.5 2.0 3.5

Air Voids
( Vol.)
(a) Wearing
Course 4 7 4 7 4 7 4 7

(b) Inter-
mediate or
basecourse 3 6 3 6 3 6 3 6

Voids in
Mineral
Aggregate
( Vol.) 18 17 16 15

34 AUSTRALIAN ROAD RESEARCH, Vol 8, No. 2, June 1978

 DICKINSON — PLANT MIXES FOR ROADS AND AIRFIELDS
THE LIMITATIONS OF THE MARSHALL-
TYPE DESIGN PROCEDURES
Despite the fact that the laboratory compaction is
very different from the compaction the material
receives at laydown and under traffic, and that the
mechanical testing bears little relation to traffic
stressing in service, the Marshall-type design has
proved very useful in practice. Pavement construc-
tion and maintenance authorities have, in general,
only used it as a basis for a final design; modifying
the aggregate grading and volumetric proportions
of the constituents to suit locally available aggreg-
ates and pavement conditions. An example of such
modification was described in a recent paper by
Phillips and Bethune (1976) which outlines the
evolution of the Marshall design for use on main
roads in the State of Victoria.
Apart from the limitation of dealing only with
dense, continuously graded mixtures, mixes
designed by the Marshall-type method are very de-
pendent on very good compaction at laydown or
compaction by traffic afterwards to attain the design
air voids. If this degree of compaction is not at-
tained, the hardening of the bitumen in the layer is
relatively rapid and it becomes inflexible and prone
to cracking.
8.0
10 50
2.5
AIR
VOIDS 6
(0/0 VOL.) 4—DESIGN
SLOW LANE I FAST LANE
2
shoulder edge median edge
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
—*TRANSVERSE POSITION (m)
Fig. 5 — Compaction of bituminous concrete by traffic
Fig. 5 shows the compaction condition across a
wearing course after three years of traffic (Oliver
1976a ). The mix was a 10 mm nominal size Marshall
design laid to an average thickness of 24 mm on one
carriageway of the dual-carriageway road. This car-
riageway is currently carrying about 13 000
veh/day (7 per cent heavy vehicles). The slow lane
has been evenly compacted to about 1 per cent air
voids above the design value, but there is an area
between the wheel tracks of the fast lane where
compaction is only at the 8.5 per cent air voids
level. As might be expected, compaction of the
material near the edges of the carriageway is very
poor.
The effect of this differential compaction on
bitumen hardening is indicated by the numbers
above the arrows in Fig. 5. These are the number of
times the viscosity of the bitumen at laydown has in-
creased during the three years. Further traffic com-
paction, particularly in the areas where there are
high air voids and hardened bitumen, is unlikely.
AUSTRALIAN ROAD RESEARCH, Vol. 8, No. 2, June 1978
Two other factors militate against the general
use of the Marshall-type mix design. Firstly, the
macrotexture of a wearing course is too shallow for
good (high speed) skid resistance and light reflec-
tance properties when wet. Secondly, the relatively
low bitumen content of the mixes (low average bitu-
men film thickness) makes them less flexible and
less resistant to fatigue than other compositions.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN DESIGN
DENSE GAP-GRADED MATERIALS
The first dense plant mix materials to be used exten-
sively were the stone filled sheet asphalts of which
the 'Hot Rolled Asphalt' (HRA), now used for many
years in U.K., is an example (British Standards In-
stitution 1973). An HRA surface course is essen-
tially a mortar of fine aggregate (`sharp natural
sand), inert filler (material passing the 75 um sieve)
and a hard bitumen which is extended with 30 to 35
per cent of coarse aggregate. A typical composition
for a surface course to be laid 40 mm thick (and
chipped after spreading to produce an acceptable
surface macrotexture) is as follows.
Per cent
Mass
Coarse aggregate i10-14 mm size) :3 o
Fine sand (90 passing the 1 18 mm sieve) 53
Filler (ground limestone) 9
Bitumen ('50 pen 1
Suitable fine aggregates and compositions for this
material were found by trial-and-error and no
laboratory design procedure was involved.
This type of material is known, however. to be
more durable and more flexible than the con-
tinuously graded Marshall-type design and is more
easily compacted to its final density at laydown. The
concern was that the empirical compositions found
to be satisfactory for U.K. conditions would have
poor resistance to shoving in hotter climates.
The fine aggregate is the major aggregate com-
ponent and has an important influence on the
`stability' when warm, so its PSD, particle shape and
particle surface texture are important. Brien (1 972)
proposed a simple flow test to assess these proper-
ties and used rutting in a wheel tracking machine,
such as that shown in Fig. 6, to assess resistance to
shoving. He also established an approximate rela-
tionship between wheel tracking at 60°C and
Marshall Stiffness (Marshall Stability/Marshall
Flow).
•—chart recorder
displacement displacement
transducer
pivot
moving 46, :prn z:7- 6 457.11
,2 1 0 load
platform
specimen 300 x 300 x 25 rnr
Fig. 6 —The wheel tracking test
35
 DICKINSON — PLANT MIXES FOR ROADS AND AIRFIELDS
Marais (1974) confirmed the work of Brien and
proposed the following Marshall design criteria (75
blows compaction) for gap-graded wearing courses
to be used in hot climates.
Min. Max.
Marshall stiffness at 60°C (MN .rn) 1.5
Marshall stability at 60°C (kN) 125
Air voids 1 Vol ) 2.0
Marais has also proposed that the average film
thickness of the bitumen in the mix should not be
less than 6.0 µm (calculated for the various grad-
ings and bitumen contents by using the surface area
factors recommended by the Asphalt Institute
(1963) ) and that the filler/bitumen ratio by mass
should not be less than one. Mixes based on these
design criteria and using selected fine aggregates
are now used for surfacing main roads in South
Africa.
POROUS FRICTION COURSES FOR SURFACING HIGH-
SPEED ROADS AND AIRFIELD RUNWAYS
As already mentioned, Marshall-type mix designs
give a very shallow surface macrotexture and are
not ideal for the surfacing of high-speed roads and
airfield runways because their skid resistance at
high speed when wet is relatively poor. A deep
macrotexture and, preferably, a porous composite is
desirable so that water can be expelled readily from
beneath the vehicle tyre and drained away quickly
from the top of the surfacing to reduce ponding.
Open-graded mixes are being successfully used
for this type of surfacing and currently the design
approach to them is mainly empirical. They can be
expected to be less durable than dense composites
and, because of their porosity, should be laid on an
impervious substrate.
A design procedure has been proposed which is
based on measurement of the void content of the
(dry) coarse aggregate (10 to 2.36 mm) after
laboratory compaction by vibration (Smith, Rice and
Spelman 1974). These voids are partially filled with
bitumen (about 6 per cent by mass of the mix) and
with the fine aggregate and filler (not more than 15
per cent by mass of the total aggregate) such that at
least 15 per cent air voids remain. The fine aggreg-
ate and filler play an important 'chocking' role for the
coarse aggregate and should be continuously
graded. The volume/mass relationship for the
various constituents of a typical porous friction
course is shown in Fig. 7.
air voids 17% %by mass
VMA 29%
/ y(itr$7/1?/0/ / • 6
\•r‘
Total vol. 1\\ t
• 80
% 0.075
•) 10.5
\ .
"r1 a!g e a e 70 •":„.„...- 3.5
—
filler 3%
Fig. 7 — Volume/mass relationship of a typical porous friction
course
36
With the high bitumen content recommended,
careful control of mixing temperature is required to
avoid drainage of the mix during handling, and 1 per
cent of hydrated lime should be included in the filler
fraction to reduce the tendency of the bitumen to
strip from the aggregate by water and traffic action.
Neither Marshall testing procedures nor wheel
tracking tests are suitable for assessing the resis-
tance of these mixes to shoving when warm. Both
procedures have indicated low stability where ser-
vice performance has been satisfactory. A good key
between the friction course and the substrate is im-
portant to prevent 'sliding'. The water immersion
wheel tracking test (United Kingdom 1962) should
be suitable for assessing the resistance of the com-
pacted mix to stripping, but this method does not
appear to be suitable for dense materials. Air void
content of the field-compacted material is prefera-
bly determined by mensuration of cores together
with 'solid' density measurements.
A porous friction course laid on the Southern
Cross Drive freeway in Sydney in 1969 (Department
of Main Roads, N.S.W. 1970) is still in satisfactory
condition, although the voids in it have been par-
tially filled with detritus. The design experience of
the Country Roads Board (CRB), Victoria with this
type of surfacing is described in a recent paper by
Currie and Bethune (1976).
LEES' WORK ON THE PACKING PROPERTIES OF
AGGREGATES
Improvement in design methods can come from a
better understanding of the packing properties of
(coated) aggregates and finding laboratory test pro-
cedures which imitate the compaction a mix
receives at laydown and subsequently under traffic.
Lees (1970) has proposed a new method for
designing maximum density aggregate gradings and
a critical assessment of this method has been given
by Dickinson and Oliver (1976). The method is
based on laboratory compaction of dry aggregate
/
80
% PASS ING SIEVE SIZE
60
7
zz
Lees z/
40
Fuller
20
6.7 13.2
0.15
I
0.30 0.60
I I
1.18
I
2.36
t
4.75
I I
9.5
I I 1
19.0
A.S. SIEVE SIZE ( m m )
2 3 4
SIEVE OPENING (Log( m)
Fig. 8 — Comparison of maximum density gradings from Lees'
procedure and 'Fuller' curve
AUSTRALIAN ROAD RESEARCH, Vol 8, No. 2, June 1978
 DICKINSON — PLANT MIXES FOR ROADS AND AIRFIELDS

fractions under vibration and the calculation pro-
cedures proposed only apply to 'one size' fractions.
The method, however, can be used by matching
combinations of industrial fractions to gradings
calculated from data on one-sized fractions or by
determining the maximum density of successive
two-component combinations of fractions by ex-
periment.
A comparison of a Lees' maximum density grad-
ing (40 mm nominal size) with a Fuller grading (n =
0.5) is shown in Fig. 8. Although the two gradings
achieve approximately the same density, the Lees'
design contains more of the finer sizes and, when
coated with bitumen, is much less prone to segrega-
tion than the Fuller grading.
Lees' procedures are more general than the
Marshall-type method and could be applied to gap-
graded materials and porous friction courses. They
can also be used to find the maximum density com-
binations which can be synthesised from a limited
choice of industrial fractions. His experimental
method for measuring the compaction of a mixture of
dry aggregates suffers, however, from the disadvan-
tage that the degree of compaction obtained is
significantly less than that produced when the ag-
gregates are coated with bitumen and compacted
under service conditions. The Australian Road
Research Board (ARRB) is currently investigating
vibration compaction procedures done in the pre-
sence of either water or light oil.
ARRB LABORATORY MIX COMPACTION PROCEDURES
In an attempt to imitate service compaction condi-
tions more closely, ARRB has developed a compac-
tion procedure using a footpath (vibrating) roller on
a layer of mix 600 mm square (Oliver 1976b ). The
procedure is shown diagrammatically in Fig. 9.
Different thicknesses can be compacted by inser-
tion of aluminium spacer plates into the mould and
the uppermost plate is heated electrically to main-
tain mix temperature.
footpath, vibrating roller
specimen 600 x 600 x 25 mm
heated spacer
Al spacer
plate
plates
steel mould
Fig. 9 — Australian Road Research Board compaction method
The effect of the number of passes of the roller
on the degree of compaction of a Marshall designed
dense, continuously graded wearing course
material 25 mm thick is shown in Fig. 10. Six passes
were needed to attain construction compaction (10
per cent air voids) and 44 passes to attain the com-
paction after three years of traffic (6.5 per cent air
voids). These two degrees of compaction are cur-
rently being used to assess the compactibility of
trial mix designs.
12
0
10 construction
4-
a)
8
0 three years under traffic
0
0
L.. 4
T1 •
_16
2 4 8 16 32 64
Number of roller passes (log scale]
Laboratory Roller Compaction
Fig. 10 — Australian Road Research Board laboratory rolling
to obtain construction and 'after traffic' compaction
Apart from assessing compactibility, the pro-
cedure produces a slab large enough to carry out
duplicate wheel tracking tests in order to assess
resistance to shoving when warm and also measure-
ments of surface macrotexture. Slabs 75 mm thick
have been manufactured with 40 mm nominal size
designs.
CONCLUSIONS
This outline of current plant mix design procedures
and of new developments has indicated that the es-
sentially static position after the establishment of
the Marshall-type design at the end of the Second
World War is now changing. This has been brought
about by the following factors:
(a) the realisation that Marshall-type designs do not
always produce durable and flexible surfacings;
(b) the need for a deep macrotexture on the surface
of high-speed roads and runways;
(c) the realisation that a mix must be designed for
the anticipated trafficking and that degree of
compaction and compactibility of a design are
important considerations; and
(d) a method for assessing the compactibility of
designs needs to be developed.

REFERENCES BRIEN, D. (1972). A design method for gap graded asphaltic mixes. Roads Road Constr. May,
pp. 140-45.
BRITISH STANDARDS INSTITUTION (1973). Specifications for Rolled Asphalt (Hot Process) for
Roads and Other Paved Areas. British Standard 594.
CURRIE, D.T. and BETHUNE, J.D. (1976). Design and use of open-graded friction course asphalt for
road surfacing. Proc. 8th ARRB Conf. 8(4), Session 17, pp. 1-7.
DEPARTMENT OF MAIN ROADS, N.S.W. (1970). Deep asphalt pavement on Southern Cross Drive.
Main Roads. September, p. 8.

AUSTRALIAN ROAD RESEARCH, Vol. 8, No. 2, June 1978 37

 DICKINSON — PLANT MIXES FOR ROADS AND AIRFIELDS

DICKINSON, E.J. and OLIVER, J.W.H. (1976). An assessment of Lees' procedures for designing
maximum density aggregate gradings. Aust. Rd Res. 6(1), pp. 12-21.
FULLER, W.B. and THOMPSON, S.E. (1907). The laws of proportioning concrete. Trans. Am. Soc.
Civ. Eng. 59, pp. 67-172.
HUBBARD, P. and FIELD, F.C. (1935). The rational design of asphalt paving mixtures. Asphalt Inst.
Res. Series 1.
LEES, G. (1970). The rational design of aggregate gradings for dense asphaltic compositions.
Proc. Assoc. Asphalt Paving Technol. 39, pp. 60-90.
MARAIS, C.P. (1974). Tentative mix design criteria for gap graded bituminous surfacings. Transp.
Res. Rec. No. 515, pp. 132-45.
McFADDEN, G. and RICKETTS, W.C. (1948). Design and field control of asphalt paving mixtures for
military installations. Proc. Assoc. Asphalt Paving Technol., 17, pp. 93-113.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIAN STATE ROAD AUTHORITIES (1978). Principles and
Practice of Bituminous Surfacing. Vol. 2 'Plant Mix Work'. Section 3.
OLIVER, J.W.H. (1976a ). Traffic compaction of bituminous concrete: An initial survey. Australian
Road Research Board. Internal Report, AIR 178-6.
(1976b ). Design of bituminous plant mixes. Progress Report. Australian Road Research
Board. Internal Report, AIR 178-3.
PHILLIPS, B.L. and BETHUNE, J.D. (1976). Design and use of asphalt mixes. Proc. 8th ARRB Conf.
8(4), Session 16, pp. 11-17.
SMITH, R.W., RICE, J.M. and SPELMAN, S.R. (1974). Design of open graded asphalt friction
courses. Report No. FHWA-RD-74-2. Fed. Highw. Admin. Offices of Res. and Devt, Washington
D.C.
THE ASPHALT INSTITUTE (1963). Mix Design Methods for Asphalt Concrete and Other Hot-Mix
Types. Asphalt Institute Manual Series 2.
UNITED KINGDOM. DEPARTMENT OF SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH. ROAD
RESEARCH LABORATORY (1962). Immersion Trafficking Tests — Bituminous Materials in
Road Construction. Chapter 5, pp. 80-1. (HMSO: London.)

After graduating from Oxford in 1941, Dr

Dickinson joined the staff of the Road
Research Laboratory, U.K. In 1951, he moved
to the newly formed Bituminous Binder
Research Unit, CS1R, South Africa. Following
three years as Technical Officer with the Bri-
tish Road Tar Association, he returned to
South Africa to take charge of the Bituminous
Division of the National Institute for Road
Research. He spent three years with Burt,
E.J. Dickinson Boulton and Hayward Ltd in London before
M.A.. B.Sc.(Oxon). joining the staff of the ARRB in 1964.
Ph.D..
C.Chem., F.R.I.C. Throughout his career he has been concerned
with research on bituminous paving materials
and its application and has published many
papers particularly on the properties of paving
tars and bitumens. He is currently group
leader of the bituminous surfacing research
work being done by the Board.

This paper is presented with the permission of the Executive Director of the Australian Road
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Research Board, Dr M.G. Lay. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily
represent those of the Australian Road Research Board.

AUSTRALIAN ROAD RESEARCH, Vol 8, No. 2, June 1978

38