Article

Ashwini Manjunath B T, Atria Institute of Technology; Karthick T R ,Atria Institute of Technology; Manjunath M S ,Atria Institute of Technology; Lakshmi K ,Atria Institute of Technology

As the river sand is widely used in construction industry, the demand for fine aggregate is increasing rapidly. River sand has been the most widely used as fine aggregate around the world and to meet the demand has led to various harmful consequences such as increase in the depth of the river bed, lowering of the water table and salinity intrusion into the rivers. As a result, there was an immediate requirement for alternatives to river sand such as manufacturing sand which is prominently used as alternative material. An experimental study is made on the strength aspects of cement mortar by partially replacing river sand with Sea Sand and desert sand as fine aggregate. This study gives a comparison on the relevant material properties of Sea Sand (SS), Desert Sand (DS) and River Sand (RS).Different fine aggregate materials (SS, DS and RS) were used in 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 100% proportion to make cement mortar blocks and tested for compressive strength at 3, 7, 28 and 56 days of curing. The Sea Sand was partially replaced with the River Sand (10% SS and 90% RS) mortar blocks were cast and similarly for desert sand (10% DS and 90% RS). For each proportion of Fine Aggregates (FA) cement mortar blocks were cast and tested for compressive strength at 3, 7, 28 and 56 days of curing. The compressive strength results for both the sets of replacements (SS+RS and DS+RS) were tabulated and graphs were plot for compressive strength v/s curing period.