In addition to the use of dimensions to determine the aspect ratios and define the elongated and flat particles, the three dimensions can be used to correlate the particle size with the sieve size.
This correlation offers a useful tool for automatic determination of gradation.
Figure 3 presents a correlation between the DM and DS and the sieve sizes. For particles passing Dp sieve size but retained on Dr sieve size, it was found that DS correlates very well with the sieve size Dr, while DM correlates very well with the sieve size Dp.
The data set used in the correlation includes four coarse aggregates in four sieve size ranges. However, it should be noted that DL does not correlate well with either Dr or Dp.
Intuitively, this relation should also be valid for fine aggregates. However, it is difficult to measure the three dimensions of fine aggregates and no data set has been published to justify this extrapolation. Most recently, a set of fine aggregate data [17] that use DS of profiles (not DS of particles) while particles lie on its most stable position presented similar correlation.
Therefore, it may be concluded that this relation may most likely be valid for both coarse and fine aggregates.