Portable Gyratory Compactor Purchased for Asphalt Testing

January 13, 1998:

The civil engineering department recently purchased a portable gyratory compactor with funds from the recently completed $20,000,000 campaign at NDSU. Additional equipment includes a notebook computer for data acquisition and analysis.

The Superpave gyratory compactor is a key component of the Superpave mix design procedure, as developed by the Strategic Highway Research Program.

This compaction device has been designed to compact hot mix asphalt samples to a density similar to that obtained in the field under traffic. It also tends to orient the aggregate particles similar to that observed in the field.

There are three parameters that control the compaction effort on the Superpave machine. These settings are vertical pressure, angle of gyration, and number of gyrations. The Superpave  gyratory compactor compacts samples 150 mm (6 inches) in diameter. The required number of gyrations is based on traffic level and average design high air temperature. Mixtures that are exposed to higher temperatures and higher traffic levels in the field will become more dense and therefore must be compacted in the laboratory to a higher density. This higher density is obtained in the laboratory by increasing the number of gyrations. 

New Hood for the Environmental Engineering Laboratory

Click here for a larger view of the hood

Soil Testing Equipment

(story to follow)