International Journal of Engineering Research ISSN:2319-6890(online),2347-5013(print)

Volume No.5, Issue Special 1 pp : 225-228 8 & 9 Jan 2016

Effect of Replacement of Natural Sand by Grit on Workability of Concrete

K. B. Thombre1, A. B. More2, S. R. Bhagat3
1,2
Department of Civil Engineering, PVPIT, Bavdhan, Pune (Maharashtra)
3
Department of Civil Engineering, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University Lonere Raigad
(Maharashtra)
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

Abstract- Globally the construction industry is facing a major of concrete in India is due to infrastructure growth such as
difficulty in obtaining natural river sand for making concrete. new highways, railway projects, airports, docks and
At national level the scenario is not different than global harbours, power projects, dams, etc. For production of
problem of natural sand. Day by day the sources of natural concrete, 70-75% aggregates are required. Out of this 60-
sand is depleting at a very fast rate and at the other end 67% is coarse aggregate and 33-40% is fine aggregate.
requirement of concrete is increasing tremendously due to Rising demand of construction sector cannot be fulfilled by
infrastructure developments taking place worldwide. natural sand as it is scarce and hence it is highly expensive.
Government has also taken a serious note of the depleting It takes millions of years to form natural sand. This bleak
sources of natural sand and is taking a corrective step to protect condition creates large demand for alternative materials and
the environment. River sand is expensive because it is rare to makes the use of grit inevitable. Natural sand contains
find at every location, at the same time it is required to be excessive silt and the grading is not proper whereas grit is
transported from long distances ultimately increasing its final free from organic impurities and meets the requirement of
cost. Environmental issues and other constraints pose gradation. The gradation of grit can be tailor-made whereas
difficulties in availability and use of river sand. To cope up with it is difficult to get particular sizes and hence the grading of
this global problem and to reduce the pressure on natural natural sand. The major target before a Civil Engineer is to
resources, one of the alternatives is to replace the natural sand produce a good quality concrete. One of the properties
partially or fully by other such materials without compromising required to produce a good quality concrete is its
the quality of concrete. This has led to a search for different workability. Workability plays an important role in the
substitute materials for natural sand. Either partial or full production of concrete. Workability depends on many
replacement of natural sand by other alternative materials like factors; one such factor is the shape and size of fine
grit, stone dust, manufactured sand, foundry sand or other aggregate. Natural sand is normally of round shape and
such materials are being researched. One of the easily available with smooth surface, whereas grit is angular and have
materials is grit which can be obtained from stone crushers and rough surface. The main difficulty in achieving desired
can be used as a substitute material to natural river workability of concrete with use of grit is shape and surface
sand.Natural sand plays an important role in the performance of grit. The use of grit in concrete reduces the workability
behaviour of concrete which directly affects the mix design. of concrete; hence the proportioning of ingredients of
Natural sand is rounded and smooth which improves the concrete is an important task. An attempt has been made by
workability of concrete. However, the grit is angular and rough conducting experiments to study the workability
which adversely affects the workability. There is a challenge characteristics of concrete produced by using grit.
before construction industry to use such material without
compromising on properties of concrete. In this paper an II. Material and Methodology
attempt has been made to propose a mix proportion for
producing concrete using grit as a substitute material to natural II (A) Experimental program
sand. The experimental work was carried out to study the effect
of grit on workability characteristics of concrete. The results The aim of this work is to study the behaviour of the
obtained from the study shows that grit can be used concrete by using grit as a replacement of natural sand. In
successfully by partially replacing the natural sand thus this work study has been done on the trial mixes in which
effectively reducing the load on environment. the natural sand has been replaced by grit. After carrying
Key words: Concrete, Natural sand, Grit, workability out trials a mix for 100% replacement of natural sand is
achieved for M 20 grade of concrete. For different concrete
I. In tr oduct i on mixes slump values were found and comparison is done in
terms of workability.For designing the M 20 grade of
Concrete is the second largest consumable material after water. concrete W/C ratio of 0.50 is taken which is further
The use of concrete is increasing tremendously due to modified up to 0.55 for meeting the value of required
infrastructure developments taking place worldwide. India workability. For the assessment of gradation, sieve analysis
consumes 450 million cubic meter of concrete per annum which of natural sand as well as grit is conducted. For the
is approximately 1 ton per Indian. The consumption is much assessment, mix designs were made using natural sand and
more for the developed nations than the Indian continent. The use grit. The tests were conducted on the trials made from using

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 International Journal of Engineering Research ISSN:2319-6890(online),2347-5013(print)
Volume No.5, Issue Special 1 pp : 225-228 8 & 9 Jan 2016

natural sand, grit and combination of grit and fly ash with test results of fineness modulus and specific gravity of
varying amount of cement, Coarse aggregate and water. In some natural sand and grit samples used in the experimental
mixes the admixtures are added for improving workability of work.
concrete. Table 1.1 shown below the comparative properties of Table no. 3 Sieve analysis of natural sand
natural sand and grit.
S. Sieve Retained Retained %
Cum.(%)
Table no. 1 General properties of Natural Sand and Grit N. sizes (gm) (%) Passing
1 4.75 mm 29.5 2.95 2.95 97.05
S.N. Property Natural Sand Grit 2 3.35 mm 19.1 1.91 4.86 95.14
1 Shape Spherical Cubical 3 2.36 mm 26.1 2.61 7.47 92.53
Cannot be Can be 4 2.00 mm 30.1 3.01 10.48 89.52
2 Grading 5 1.0 mm 145.2 14.52 25 75
controlled controlled
3 Specific Gravity 2.6 to 2.8 2.5 to 2.9 6 600 µ 125.3 12.53 37.53 62.47
4 Water Absorption 2 to 3% 3 to 4% 7 90 µ 611.5 61.15 98.68 1.32
Ability to hold 8 Pan 11.9 1.19 99.87 0.13
5 Up to 7% Up to10%
moisture
Table no. 4 Sieve analysis of grit (sample 1)
II (B) Materials
S. Sieve Retained %
Retained(%) Cum.(%)
The following paragraphs explain the details of materials used N. sizes (gm) Passing
for conducting the experiments. The natural sand was obtained 1 10 mm 5.0 0.5 0.5 99.5
from nearby river, whereas coarse aggregate and grit was 2 4.75 mm 82.3 8.23 8.73 91.27
obtained from local crusher. A total of12 concrete samples with 3 2.36 mm 292.1 29.21 37.94 62.06
4 1.18 mm 299.3 29.93 67.87 32.13
different proportions were studied to find the workability
5 600 µ 93 9.3 77.17 22.83
characteristics of concrete.
6 300 µ 70.9 7.09 84.26 15.74
7 150 µ 73.2 7.32 91.58 8.42
II (B-1) Cement 8 Pan 84.9 8.49 100.07 - 0.07

In this experimental work OPC 53 grade cement was used. The Table no. 5 Test results of fine aggregate
tests conducted on the cement were fineness test conforming to
IS 12269 : 1987, standard consistency test, compression test Results
conforming to IS 650 : 1991. Table no. 2 shows the test results of
cement used for producing concrete.

Grit (sample 1)

Grit (sample 2)

Grit (sample 3)
Natural sand

Table no. 2 Test results of cement S.N. Test

S.N. Test Result

1 Soundness ( Le Chatelier ) 8 mm
2 Initial setting time 50 minutes Specific
1 2.66 2.6 2.35 2.52
3 Final setting time 560 minutes gravity
4 Compressive strength (28 days) 51 MPa Fineness
2 2.86 4.68 4.57 4.51
5 Fineness 235 m2/kg modulus

II (B-2) Natural sand and grit II (B-3) Coarse aggregate

For the present work four types of fine aggregate are used for Coarse aggregate occupies the maximum volume in
making concrete which includes natural sand and three different concrete, hence it is plays an important role in performance
samples of grit. Initially, trials were carried out on the mix made of concrete. It occupies nearly 70 to 80 percent by volume
from the natural sand which is free from the organic impurities. of the concrete and hence their properties are vital. Plastic
Following which trials were made by replacing natural sand by and hardened concrete properties are largely depends upon
three different samples of grit. The sieve analysis was conducted the type of coarse aggregate. In this work coarse aggregate
for determination of gradation of natural sand as well as grit. For conforming to IS 383 : 1970 was used having maximum
sieve analysis 1 kg of material was taken and sieved through size of aggregate of 20 mm. the particle size of coarse
sieves which were mounted one over another in decreasing order aggregate varied from 4.75 mm to 20 mm.
of their sizes i.e. 4.75 mm, 3.35 mm, 2 mm, 600 micron, 90
micron and grading pattern was found. Results of sieve analysis II (B-4) Super plasticizer
for natural sand are shown in table no. 3. Whereas, table no. 4
shows the results of sieve analysis for grit. Table no. 5 shows the In the present investigation Conplast SP 430 super
plasticizing admixture was used, which complies with IS

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 International Journal of Engineering Research ISSN:2319-6890(online),2347-5013(print)
Volume No.5, Issue Special 1 pp : 225-228 8 & 9 Jan 2016

9103 : 1999. Conplast SP 430 is based on sulphonated Table no. 8 Trial Mix Design for replacement of natural
naphthalene polymers and is supplied as a brown liquid instantly sand by grit (Sample 2, 3) (kg/m3)
dispersible in water. It has been specially formulated to give high
water reduction up to 25% without loss of workability. Its Fine
specific gravity is 1.145 (at 30 °C) and chloride content is Nil. Aggregates

-plasticizer
aggregates
w/c ratio
Cement

Fly ash
Coarse

Super-
Air entrainment is approximately 1%. S.N

Sample 2

Sample 3
.
II (B-5) Water

Water plays an important role in modifying the plastic and 33 0.5 548. 1080.3 0.80 99.0
hardened properties of concrete. It reacts with cement and helps 1 -
0 5 8 5 % 6
in setting and hardening the cement by evolving heat of 33 0.5 583.9 1080.0 0.80 99.0
2 -
hydration. The workability of concrete directly depends on the 0 5 2 0 % 6
water-cement ratio and hence the quantity of water used for
making concrete. The water-cement ratio affects directly the Based on the results of 1st trial mix, adjustments were made
workability and strength of hardened concrete. For making the for the further trial mix. Each trial mix was designed to
concrete potable water was used. obtain a target mean strength of 26.6 N/mm2. Different
concrete mix were designed with a variable water-cement
II (C) Mix design of concrete ratio and cement content varying from 330 kg/m3 to 400
kg/m3.
Concrete mix was designed in accordance with IS 456 : 2000 and
IS 10262 : 1982. A total of four concrete mix were designed to III. Results and Tables
obtain M 20 grade of concrete. Out of the four concrete mix, one
mix was prepared from 100% natural sand and the other three III(A) Measurement of workability
mix were by replacement of natural sand with grit. Table no. 6 The 1st trial mix of concrete tested had a water-cement ratio
shows the proportions of ingredients for different mix of of 0.50 with 100% natural sand as fine aggregate. The
concrete: workability measured on a slump cone for this 1st trail mix
was 50 mm. The compressive strength obtained for the 1st
Table no. 6 Concrete mix proportions for M 20 grade (kg/m3) trail was more than the desired target mean strength. Hence
a 2nd trail mix of concrete with natural sand was made by
S.N.
Materials Cement Water
Sand (fine Coarse reducing cement content and as expected the required target
aggregate) Aggregate mean strength was achieved. The 3rd trial mix was made
1 Quantity 394.32 197.9 635.74 1147.45 with replacement of natural sand by grit with an increased
2 Proportion 1 0.50 1.6 2.90 water-cement ratio of 0.55. For this sample of concrete mix
the observed slump was shear slump. So the 4th trial was
Table no. 7 Trial Mix Design for replacement of natural sand by carried out with addition of SP-430 superplasticizer. The
grit (Sample 1) (kg/m3) concrete obtained was honeycombed for this mix and it
became difficult to finish the concrete in cubes. To improve
Fine aggregates the workability and ease in finishing the concrete, mix was
aggregates

Plasticizer

designed for another trial with addition of fly ash. The

Cement

Fly ash
Coarse
(sample1)

Super-
ratio

Natural
S.N.

w/c

difficulty in achieving a smooth finish and target

sand

Grit

workability was achieved by addition of 30% fly ash and

0.8% SP 430 super plasticizer. Table no. 9 shows the
1 340 0.50 662.34 - 1155.42 - 340
workability of concrete obtained for different mix.
Table no. 9 Workability results of various mixes
2 325 0.50 - 652.6 1116.8 - 325
3 370 0.50 - 696.5 1114.8 0.60% 370 W/C Workability
S.N. Fine Aggregate Admixture
4 330 0.55 - 541.00 1085 0.80% 330 ratio (mm)
5 330 0.55 - 568.058 1085 0.80% 330 1 0.50 Natural sand - 50
2 0.50 Natural sand - 40
3 0.55 Grit (sample 1) - 50
4 0.55 Grit (sample 1) 0.8% SP 430 100
5 0.55 Grit (sample 1) + 0.8% SP 430 110
40% Fly ash
6 0.55 Grit (sample 2) + 0.8% SP 430 150
30% Fly ash
7 0.55 Grit (sample 3) + 0.8% SP 430 150
30% Fly ash
8 0.55 Grit (sample 1) 0.8% SP 430 30

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 International Journal of Engineering Research ISSN:2319-6890(online),2347-5013(print)
Volume No.5, Issue Special 1 pp : 225-228 8 & 9 Jan 2016

IV.Conclusion

Natural sand as fine aggregate in concrete plays an important role References

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