A substantial number of municipal districts in the State of Amazonas are located in areas which are poor in stony materials. And this has led pavement builders into adopting alternatives which have historically produced pavements with low mechanical strength. Whist more effective and appropriate from a technical standpoint, the asphalt concrete has been usually left aside due to the referred lack of stony materials. Because of the specific situation in the State of Amazonas the adoption of synthetic calcinated clay aggregates (SCCA), with an abundant raw material (clay) in the State of Amazonas is recommended in lieu of the traditional practice. Previous works carried out by the Federal University of Amazonas Geotechny Group have demonstrated that the clay soil commonly used in the production of ceramic materials can yield synthetic aggregates with adequate mechanical properties. In this research work, samples featuring similar characteristics as those of the soils in question have been found along the BR-319 highway connecting the Manaus (AM) city to Porto Velho (RO) city. The transportation structure in general is in deplorable conditions. Justifiably so, the recovery of this highway has been earmarked as one of the targets for the Ministry of Transportation. In this study, asphalt mixtures were blended with synthetic aggregates and pebbles taken from the river bed in order to compare the mechanical performance of such mixtures by means of the determination of the resilient modulus (RM). The results, as a rule, have shown that the asphalt mixtures comprising synthetic calcinated clay aggregates when compared with those comprising the naturally-found material (river bed pebbles) have shown: (a) greater tensile and resilient modulus strengths; (b) low deformation tendency, as well as a considerable elastic recovery and (c) less susceptibility to permanent deformation.
synthetic aggregates; calcinated clay; resilient modulus
