Sandstone cutting waste as partial replacement of fine aggregates in concrete: A mechanical strength perspective

Construction activities are progressing rapidly across the globe due to the demand for concrete and its constituent materials especially fine and coarse aggregates. The large quantity of concrete production is causing an acute shortage of natural sand. Nowadays researchers are finding ways by exploring better alternatives of river sand in the form of manufactured sand as well as crushed rock sand. Sandstone cutting waste are sand-sized grains of mineral obtained from sedimentary rocks. This research aims to find the mechanical properties of concrete containing sandstone cutting waste collected from Bayana in Rajasthan state in India with the replacement of natural river sand. The study was carried out by opting three different w/c ratios i.e. 0.35, 0.40 & 0.45 and concrete mixes were designed as per IS10262: 2009. The effect of sandstone cutting waste was investigated both for fresh concrete attributes i.e. slump & density as well as hardened Concrete attributes i.e. compressive strength of cubes, the flexural strength of beams & split tensile strength of cylinders along with abrasion resistance in concrete cubes along with microstructural studies of hardened concrete by scanning electron microscope(SEM), optical microscope(OM). A comparison study was also carried out with control mix concrete having 0% sandstone cutting waste and further river sand was replaced with sandstone cutting waste using replacement level of 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50% & 100% along with optimum levels in between. It was observed that sandstone cutting waste can be utilized in the production of structural concrete as partial replacement of river sand up to 10% replacement level using w/c ratio of 0.35 & up to 30% replacement level using w/c ratio of 0.4 & 0.45.