A Comparative Study on Using Laterite and Sandstone Aggregates on Mechanical Properties of Concrete

Abstract

Scarcity of natural aggregates in concrete construction is leading to explore the use of alternative materials, especially various industrial waste products. Mining industry is one such major source of waste materials. Sandstone, which is overlying coal seams, is the largest quantity of waste rock being produced by coal mining industry. Laterite is another waste comes from small scale quarries. An attempt is made to assess the use of laterite-GGBS and sandstone as partial replacement for sand in concrete. Sandstone samples were collected from the dumps of a coal mine in south India and laterite samples were collected from different quarries from the southwestern part of India. Various properties of mine waste samples were determined in the laboratory as per IS codes, the properties were found to be very close to that of natural river sand. Mix proportions were prepared for M20 grade concrete. Mechanical properties of concrete with different mixes (0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% replacement with sand) were determined and compared. As a result, the concrete mixes with the replacement of fine aggregates with 100% sandstone increased in strength properties i.e., compressive, splitting tensile, and flexural strength compared to laterite mixes, where the strength properties decreased with increase in replacement levels. This indicates that sandstone can be an effective replacement for the river sand in concrete. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.