Studies on the effect of m sand in ternary blended high performance concrete

Abstract

The rapid development of construction industry across the world has newlinebeen increasing the demand of conventional construction materials. In plain cement concrete, aggregate accounts for 66% to 78% of its volume. Fine aggregate occupy 20% to 30% of the total volume of concrete. Natural sand, which is dredged from river beds, has been commonly considered as fine aggregate for making concrete. The extraction of sand from river bed causes the environmental issues which also creates the ecological problems. In many countries, environmental legislation prevents dredging sand from river beds. In an effort to conserve the natural resources, it is necessary to explore alternate construction materials and minimize the adverse effect in the environment. The abundant quantity of surplus material (25% to 45%) when coarse aggregate is produced from hard rock quarries depending on the parent rock is possible to collect while crushing and screening process of coarse aggregate. The fine particle obtained from the surplus mineral is processed further in to the level of sand called Manufactured Sand (M-Sand). Many researchers have already been conducted investigation on the suitability of M-sand in conventional mortar and concrete. However, the studies on the suitability of M-sand in High Strength Concrete (HSC) and High Performance Concrete (HPC) are limited. This investigation was intended to evaluate the suitability of M sand as fine aggregate in FA and SF based ternary blended High strength high performance concrete. In order to understand the possibilities of M-sand, characteristics of M-sand such as grain size distribution and presence of silt and clay content were experimentally determined and compared with natural sand. Mix design has been prepared as per the procedure adopted by Su and Miao. Three series of samples from M50, M60 and M70 grade HPC were considered, the series A consists of river sand only and considered as control concrete. The series B consists of 50% river sand and 50% M-sand and the series C consists