1m3 of gravel equal to how many tonnes?

Question

1m3 of gravel equal to how many tonnes?

Answer 1

Bulk density of gravel depends on particle size; composition, moisture content and particle shape.  But for clean quartz gravel about 25mm in diameter, the figure would be about 1.6 tonnes per cubic metre (for washed fine sand, it would be about 1.5 tonnnes in bulk).  If it had a lot of clay and silt mixed with it, it could weigh closer to 2 tomnnes.

Answer 2

The 1.5 -2.0 tonnes per cubic meter is a good range to work with.  

There are three factors that matter:

1) density of the material making up the gravel (typically the density of the material making the particulates (gravel in this case) averages about 2.7 tonnes per cubic meter but can be much higher if enriched in metals;

2) there is a lot of open space between the particles, the amount of open space depends on the grain sizes and shapes of the particles and whether there is a lot of smaller stuff that can fit into the open spaces between the bigger stuff and fill in those spaces.  A screened gravel will not have much of these smaller things and thus will have a lot of open space (which weighs nothing), so gravel will typically weigh 50 % to 70 % of the equivalent weight of a solid rock of the same material.

3)  The amount of water in the material affects weight.  Water density is 1 tonne per cubic meter, much less than solid rock but much more than air, so a wet gravel will weigh more than a dry gravel but less than a gravel with a lot of smaller stuff like sand and silt filling the spaces (because sand and silt has a density of 2.7, give or take).

Every case is unique, so predicting the mass in general terms is essentially impossible.  A good rule of thumb when dealing with earth fill materials is to use a density of about 1.8 tonnes per cubic meter for your calculations, keeping in mind that you are only estimating the value within about 20 %.

Answer 3

Gravel is 1.5 to 2.0 tonnes per cubic meter

http://www.simetric.co.uk/si_materials.h...