DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

CETB 411
HIGHWAY AND TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING LABORATORY

EXPERIMENT 3.8 : LOS ANGELES ABRASION TEST

PREPARED BY :
SECTION 03

NO.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

NAME
Group Members :
Nurfarah Izzati binti Ahmad Yusoff
Muhammad Azim bin Ab. Rahaman
Nurul Asyikin Binti Mustafa Bakari
Fahmee Mohammed
Nurshakirah Binti Hafiz
Saleha Binti Anuar

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF :

MR. MOHD ZAKWAN BIN RAMLI

SEMESTER 1 2016/2017

ID NO.
CE 093891
CE 091734
CE 093818
CE 090857
CE 090633
CE 094152

SUMMARY

For this experiment we want to test for the characterize toughness and abrasion
resistance by the Los Angeles (L.A.) abrasion test.

The Los Angeles Abrasion Test is a measure of degradation of mineral

aggregates of standard resulting from a combination of action including abrasion and
grinding in a rotating steel drum containing a specified number of steel spheres. The
number steel charges depend upon the amount and grading of test sample. As the drum
rotates, a self-plate picks up the sample and the steel spheres, carrying them until they
are dropped to the opposite site of the drum creating an impact and crushing effect. The
content then roll within the drum with an abrading and grinding action until the selfplate impacts and the cycle is repeated. After the prescribed number of revolutions, the
contents are removed from the drum and the aggregate portion is sieved to measure the
degradation as percent loss.

The process for the L.A. abrasion test it is simply by get the sample of the
aggregates first for 5 kg. The 5 kg of the aggregates then divided into two parts, as one
part will undergo the sieve size of 20 14 mm while the other half undergo the
aggregates sieve size 14-10 mm. Next step was placed the sample of aggregates with
the eleven spheres balls inside the Los Abrasion Machine. The sample of aggregates
then will undergo the rotating drum for 500 revolutions at a speed of 30 33 revolution
per minute (RPM). After the rotating of sample, the aggregate that is retained on a
No.12 (1.70 mm) sieve is subtracted from the original weight to obtain a percentage of
the total aggregate weight that has broken down and passed through the No. 12 (1.70
mm) sieve. The retained material (larger particles) is then weighed and compared to the
original sample weight. The difference in weight is reported as a percent of the original
weight and called the "percent loss".

INTRODUCTION
The Los Angeles (L.A.) abrasion test is a common test method used to indicate
aggregate toughness and abrasion characteristics. Aggregate abrasion characteristics are
important because the constituent aggregate in HMA must resist crushing, degradation
and disintegration in order to produce a high quality HMA. The standard L.A. abrasion
test subjects a coarse aggregate sample (retained on the No. 12 (1.70 mm) sieve) to
abrasion, impact, and grinding in a rotating steel drum containing a specified number of
steel spheres.
After being subjected to the rotating drum, the weight of aggregate that is
retained on a No.12 (1.70 mm) sieve is subtracted from the original weight to obtain a
percentage of the total aggregate weight that has broken down and passed through the
No. 12 (1.70 mm) sieve. Therefore, an L.A. abrasion loss value of 40 indicates that 40%
of the original sample passed through the No. 12 (1.70 mm) sieve.

OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this experiment are :

to ascertain the degradation of aggregates by abrasion

to determine the Los Angeles abrasion value.
to find the suitability of aggregates for use in road construction.

APPARATUS
The apparatus used in this experiment are :

Los Angeles Abrasion machine

Tray
Sieves (20mm, 14mm, 10mm, 1.75mm and pan)
Weight balance (accurate 0.01g)
Fine haired brush (3mm)

PROCEDURES

1.

Approximately 5000g of aggregates including 2500 10g of 20mm to 14mm

sizes and 2500 10g of 14m to 10mm sizes are used in this test. (Note that this
is for aggregate graded mainly between 20mm and 10mm size). The sample is

2.
3.
4.
5.

washed and dried, and then weighed.

The sample is placed in the Los Angeles Abrasion Machine.
Eleven steel balls are added in the machine.
The drum is rotated for 500 revolutions at 30-33rpm.
After the drum stopped, the sample is removed from the drum and sieved on No.
12 sieve. The sample that is retained on the sieve is washed and dried at
temperature of 105C to 110C. Then, the sample is weighed once it is cooling
down to room temperature.

THEORY
The aggregate used in surface course of the highway pavements are subjected to
wearing due to movement of traffic. When vehicles move on the road, the soil particles
present between the pneumatic tyres and road surface cause abrasion of road
aggregates. The steel reamed wheels of animal driven vehicles also cause considerable
abrasion of the road surface. Therefore, the road aggregates should be hard enough to
resist abrasion. Resistance to abrasion of aggregate is determined in laboratory by Los
Angeles test machine. The principle of Los Angeles abrasion test is to produce abrasive
action by use of standard steel balls which when mixed with aggregates and rotated in a
drum for specific number of revolutions also causes impact on aggregates. The
percentage wear of the aggregates due to rubbing with steel balls is determined and is
known as Los Angeles Abrasion Value.
Aggregates undergo substantial wear and tear throughout their life. In general,
they should be hard and tough enough to resist crushing, degradation and disintegration
from any associated activities including manufacturing (Figure 1), stockpiling (Figure
2), production (Figure 3), placing (Figure 4) and compaction (Figure 5) (Roberts et al.,
1996[1]). Furthermore, they must be able to adequately transmit loads from the pavement
surface to the underlying layers and eventually the subgrade. These properties are
especially critical for open or gap graded HMA (dense-graded mix is a wellgraded HMA mixture), which do not benefit from the cushioning effect of the fine
aggregate and where coarse particles are subjected to high contact stresses.
Aggregates not adequately resistant to abrasion and polishing may cause
premature structural failure and/or a loss of skid resistance. Furthermore, poor
resistance to abrasion can produce excessive dust during HMA production resulting in
possible environmental problems as well as mixture control problems.

Figure 1: Aggregates manufacturing

Figure 2: Aggregates stockpiles

Figure 3: Aggregates Production

Figure 4: Aggregates placing

Figure 5: Aggregates compaction

RESULT AND ANALYSIS

Aggregates size

Weight of sample

Weight of sample

Loss

(mm)
20 14
14 10

(g) before
2500
2500

(g) after
2260
2110

(g)
240
390

Calculation:
Aggregates size 20 14 mm
=

weight sample before crush (g) weight sample after crush (g)

2500 2260

240 g

Aggregates size 14 10 mm
=

weight sample before crush (g) weight sample after crush (g)

2500 2110

390 g

Average weight passing 2.36 mm

=
=

240+ 390
2
315 g

Average weight before crush

=
=

2500+ 2500
2
2500 g

Percent Wear
=

Weight loss
x 100
Initial weight

315
x 100
2500

12.6 %
From the experiment that we have done, the aggregate shows 12.6% of

percentage wear. The difference between the original mass and the final mass of the
sample is reported as the percentage of wear. This percentage of wear indicates that the
aggregates contain rocks types of granite, quartzite, and dolomite rocks to the nominal
maximum size of 14mm.
The 12.6% wear prove that this aggregate is full filling the JKR requirement of
not exceeding 30% wear and it also shows that our sample is suitable to be used for
roadwork.
The 12.6% wear for our sample shows that our sample has a good strength. The
hard aggregates are quite resistance to crushing effects.
The sample which has been tested has high L.A abrasion loss can provide a
good performance.
From this experiment we came to know that aggregate with high L.A abrasion
loss value will tend to create dust during production and handling, which may
contribute to environmental and mixture problem.
Referred to the type of the rocks in our sample aggregate, it can be concluded
that this aggregates have fair and good hardness, resistance to stripping, surface texture
and crush shape.
Actually, the result we get from this test is not precise enough due to no washing
was conducted before and after the test, and it might still contain dust. The dust may
affect the weight of the result.

Thus, this test result comply generally that for a nominal 20 mm maximum
size aggregates with the percentage of wear should be between 10% to 45%.
Rock aggregate is widely used in building constructions and most public
projects including roads, bridges, railroad etc. Aggregates, which do not have adequate
toughness and abrasion resistance, may cause construction and performance problems.
To assess the abrasion resistance of aggregates, the most common method is the Los
Angeles abrasion (LAA) test determining the relative competence or resistance to
abrasion of the aggregates. The aim of this study was to predict the LAA of rocks from
some physical and mechanical properties.
Aggregate is the most fundamental and widely used component of construction.
It is used as an unbound material which constitutes about 100% of the volume of base
courses, 95 to 93% of the volume of asphalt and about 85 to 75% of the volume of
Portland cement concrete. Aggregate is exposed to a number of physical and chemically
degrading forces during processing, transporting, and construction. As the main load
carrying component of unbound and bituminous and Portland cement concretes, the
aggregate must be clean, hard, sound, durable, resistant to abrasion, uniform in quality
and free of any detrimental quantities of soft, friable, thin, elongated or laminated
pieces, disintegrated material, alkali or other deleterious substance. For assesing the
abrasion resistance of aggregates, the most common method is the Los Angeles
abrasion and impact test which determines the relative competence or resistance to
abrasion of the aggregates.
The L.A. abrasion test measures the degradation of a coarse aggregate sample
that is placed in a rotating drum with steel spheres (Figure 7). As the drum rotates the
aggregate degrades by abrasion and impact with other aggregate particles and the steel
spheres (called the "charge"). Once the test is complete, the calculated mass of
aggregate that has broken apart to smaller sizes is expressed as a percentage of the total
mass of aggregate. Therefore, lower L.A. abrasion loss values indicate aggregate
that is tougher and more resistant to abrasion.

The Los Angeles Abrasion Test is an empirical test to assess abrasion of

aggregates. In general, the less a material abrades during this test, the less it will scour.
Materials with loss percentages greater than 40 should be considered scourable.
Aggregates must be tough and abrasion resistant to prevent crushing,
degradation, and disintegration when stockpiled, fed through an asphalt plant, placed
with a paver, compacted with rollers, and subjected to traffic loadings. These properties
are especially critical for open or gap graded asphalt concrete mixtures (such as opengraded friction courses and stone matrix asphalt) which do not benefit from the
cushioning effect of the fine aggregate and where coarse particles are subjected to high
contact stresses.

CONCLUSION
The principal mechanical properties required in stones are satisfactory resistance
to crushing under the roller during construction and adequate resistance to surface
abrasion under traffic.
Aggregates used in road construction, should be strong enough to resist crushing
under traffic wheel loads. If the aggregates are weak, the stability of the pavement
structure is likely to be adversely affected. The strength of coarse aggregates is assessed
by aggregates crushing test. The crushing value provides a relative measure of
resistance to crushing under a gradually applied compressive load. To achieve a high
quality of pavement, aggregate possessing low aggregate crushing value should be
preferred.
The Los Angeles test has been widely used as an indicator of the relative quality
or competence of various sources of aggregates having similar mineral compositions.
Specifications limit based on this test should be assigned with extreme care taking into
consideration the aggregate type and their performance history in specific end uses.
D>F Orchard suggest the following specifications using the LA value:
i.

The LA value should be equal to or less than 40% if aggregate is to be used in

concrete. For concrete wearing course lower values should be specified.

ii.

The LA value should be equal to or less than 45% for road base materials in
lightly trafficked road.

The JKR Specification gives the following limits:

i.

Aggregate for use in concrete maximum 50%

ii.

Aggregate for used in bituminous road surfacing maximum is 40%

The test is an important tool to measure the hardness of aggregates that are
recommend for use in highway projects. The test also will determine the quality
of the aggregate. The soft aggregates will be quickly ground to dust, whilst the
hard aggregates are quite resistant to crushing effect.

REFERENCE
http://www.pavementinteractive.org/article/los-angeles-abrasion/

http://theconstructor.org/building/building-material/determination-of-los-angelesabrasion-value/1361/

http://sepertilayanglayang.blogspot.my/2012/02/aggregate-crushing-value.html

APPENDIX

Figure 6: The sample of aggregates

Figure 7: The group member search for the sieve of 20, 14 and 10 mm.

Figure 8: The sample of aggregates was sieve.

Figure 9: The sample of aggregates was put inside the Los Abrasion Machine with the
eleven steel spheres balls.

Figure 10: The sample of aggregates then will be rotating for 500 rotation.