Standard Practice for Reducing Samples of Aggregate to Testing Size

Abstract

4.1 Procedures for testing aggregates require obtaining representative portions of the supply material. Other factors being equal, larger samples will tend to be more representative of the total supply. This practice provides procedures for reducing the large sample obtained in the field, or produced in the laboratory, to a convenient size for conducting a number of descriptive and quality tests. Failure to carefully follow the procedures in this practice could result in providing a non-representative sample to be used in subsequent testing. The individual test methods provide for minimum amount of material to be tested. 4.2 Under certain circumstances, reduction in size of the large sample prior to testing is not recommended. Substantial differences between the selected test samples sometimes cannot be avoided, for example, in the case of an aggregate having relatively few large size particles in the sample. The laws of chance dictate that these few particles may be unequally distributed among the reduced size test samples. Similarly, if the test sample is being examined for certain contaminants occurring in only small percentages, caution should be used in interpreting results from the reduced size test sample. Chance inclusion or exclusion of only one or two particles in the selected test sample may importantly influence interpretation of the characteristics of the original sample. In these cases, the entire original sample should be tested.