STUDY ON REPLACEMENT FOR CEMENT AND FINE AGGREGATES USING ECOSAND

This study focuses on the effect of partial replacement of cement and fine aggregate by eco sand (extracted dolomite) from a cement manufacturing company. In this study, the cement as well as fine aggregates are replaced by a byproduct from a cement manufacturing company at 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%. During hydration process there are cement particles which serves as filler instead of taking part in hydration. Hence, in this study the cement is also replaced by crystalline powder which acts as filler. The concrete taken for study is M40 grade. The rheology studies are also made in detail as the fine content of concrete increases, the water demand for concrete increases to make it workable. Hence this problem was overcome with help of chemical admixtures (water retarders). Good workability was noticed when 1% of retarding super plasticizer was used in the mix. The compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength was increased when the cement and fine aggregate was mutually replaced with 5%, 10% and 15% of eco sand. By 20% replacement, the concrete mixture demands more water as it contains more fines as 40% of fines in total volume. This problem can be solved using 2% of water retarding admixtures. The SEM, XRD reveals that the eco sand is as fine as a filler which has the ability to fill the pores in transition zone of concrete.