Study on strength and durability characteristics of concrete containing treated used foundry sand

Abstract

Concrete is the most extensively and universally used construction material in the construction industry. Ten Billion tonnes of concrete is produced every year and it stands next to total consumption of water. Concrete is a versatile material containing a mixture of ingredients like cement, fine aggregate, coarse aggregate and water. The aggregate occupies 70% to 80% of total volume of concrete. In this, fine aggregate occupies 20 to 30% of the total volume. The river sand is used as a fine aggregate in concrete for several decades. The river gets depleted due to natural calamities, over exploitation and contamination through disposal of wastes from industries. At present, many researches are being carried out to overcome the stress and the demand for river sand by using alternative materials. Now a days, there is a hiking raise in the cost of construction materials. On the other hand, variety of waste materials are disposed into earth which affect our nature. Hence there is an urgent need for finding alternatives for protecting our environment from the hazardous wastes and over exploitation of natural resources. newline