Experimental Study on Granite Quarry Dust as Partial Replacement of Sand in Concrete

The demand of natural sand in the construction industry increased resulting rapid depletion of natural river beds and acute shortage of natural sand resulted in increase of construction cost. This experimental study presents the variation in the strength of concrete when replacing sand by granite quarry dust from 0% to 100% in steps of 10%. M20 and M25 grades of concrete were taken for study keeping a constant slump of 60mm. The compressive strength of concrete cubes at the age of 7 and 28 days were obtained at room temperature. Also the temperature effect on concrete cubes at 1000C on 28th day of casting was carried out to check the loss of strength. From test results it was found that the maximum compressive strength is obtained only at 50% replacement at room temperature and net strength after loss due to hike in temperature was above the recommended strength value due to 50% replacement itself. This result gives a clear picture that quarry dust can be utilized in concrete mixtures as a good substitute for natural river sand giving higher strength at 50% replacement.