Effective Utilization of Crusher Dust in Concrete Using Portland Pozzolana Cement

The purpose for taking up this investigation owing to the fact that now a days natural sand confirming to Indian Standards is becoming scarcer and costlier due to its non availability in time because of Law of Land, illegal dredging by sand mafia, accessibility to the river source during rainy season, non confirming with IS 383-1970. Hence the present investigation was taken up with a view to verify the suitability, feasibility and potential use of crusher dust, a waste product from aggregate crushing plant in concrete mixes, in context of its compressive strength and workability and in terms of slump, compacting factor, flow table and modified flow respectively. In view of above discussion, an attempt is made to replace the natural sand in concrete control mixes of M25 and M30 grades designed for 100 to 120mm slump at replacement levels of 30%, 40%, 50% and 60% using Portland Pozzolana Cement. There were in all 5 mixes in each grade of concrete including control mix and four mixes with crusher dust as a partial replacement of natural sand. It was observed that with use of crusher dust at all replacement levels, the workability of concrete was reduced from 1-6%. From the test results, it was observed that the replacement of natural sand by crusher dust increased the compressive strength of concrete by 5-22%. It was also found that amongst all the mixes, the highest compressive strength was obtained for 40% replacement of sand by crusher dust. Hence it could be concluded and recommended that crusher dust could be effectively used in concrete of above grades for replacement levels of sand by 30-60% economically leading to sustainable development.