Utilization of Stone Dust as an Effective Alternative for Sand Replacement in Concrete

Construction activities are increasing day by day in different regions, and it requires many natural resources. Alternative materials have been searched for, which can fully or partially replace naturally available material in construction. Stone dust (SD) is one such alternative material which can be successfully used in construction and used as partial replacement of natural sand. The influence of the SD on fresh and hardened properties of concrete are examined and presented in this paper. In this study, sand is replaced by stone dust in different percentages ranging from 0 to 60%. The influence of replacement of sand by SD was analyzed through evaluation of fresh property such as workability (WKA), and mechanical properties, including compressive strength (CS) and splitting tensile strength (TS). Durability properties mainly water absorption (WA), acid resistance (AR) and sulphate resistance (SR) are also determined. The specimen cubes were subjected to 7 Days, 28 Days, and 90 Days and 180 Days moist curing as well as sulphate solution (10,000 ppm) curing. The results show that the optimum replacement level of SD is 40% based on the compressive strength and per cent loss of compressive strength. Sulphate attack is observed minimum at this replacement level. Therefore SD can be effectively utilized in concrete as a valuable alternative for sand and may prove beneficial in construction.