Finding Alternative to River Sand in Building Construction

Abstract

Due to the increasing expansion of infrastructure, there is a very high worldwide demand for river sand in the modern era. India's annual demand for river sand is 60 million metric tons. In metropolitan cities, the need for river sand is about 1 kilogram per person per day. The rapid extraction of river sand is producing detrimental effects on the environment. The main objective of the research is to determine the impact of rapid sand mining on river bank erosion and accretion and to find substitute materials for river sand. The River bank variations were measured for 1990-2000, 2000-2010, 2010-2020, and 1990-2020, and the corresponding erosion and accretion maps were created. These materials (copper slag, quarry dust, foundry sand, and sawdust) are used as an alternative to river sand to produce concrete mix. These alternatives substituted river sand from 10% to 60% in the mix proportion of M25 grade concrete to obtain the optimum compressive strength. These alternatives were also subjected to physical testing to determine their similarities to river sand. A Scanning Electron Microscope was used to analyze the hardened concrete's microstructure. The hardened concrete (River sand Substituted) is also analyzed to determine the changes in the internal structure of the concrete after 14 and 28 days.