Enhancing Concrete Performance with Waste Foundry Sand Using Ternary Blended Mixes of Ordinary Portland Cement, Silica Fume, and Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag

Abstract

Mineral admixtures play an important part in improving the strength characteristics of concrete. This manuscript presents the incorporation of silica fume (SF) and ground granulated blast furnace slag into the concrete mix to decrease the cement content and enhance the strength and concrete's durability. In addition, river sand deposits have started to dry up. Also, eco‐friendly disposal of industrial wastes acts as a major threat to industries. Hence, the use of waste foundry sand (WFS) and M‐sand (MS) as fine aggregate is attempted in this study. In the first phase of this research work, concrete specimens have been prepared by partially replaced cement with 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% by Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS) and 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15% by SF to find their optimum replacements in Ternary Blended Concrete (TBC). In the second phase, concrete specimens replaced with 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% by WFS for fine aggregate (MS) were prepared and found optimum usage of foundry sand in waste foundry sand concrete (WFSC). In the third phase, a ternary blended green concrete (TBGC) was prepared by partially replaced cement with 30% GGBFS and 10% SF and replaced MS with 30% WFS and conducted strength (flexural strength, compressive and split tensile strength) and durability (acid and sulfate attack) studies. The above combination was found to be a promising way for the development of environmentally friendly concrete.