Like mortar or concrete? I can not find case studies or articles about this topic?
You might look for leads under Compressed Block and Rammed Earth building.
Desert sand will be roundish from attrition and will be more workable in concrete than normal sand. Its use in concrete, however, will depend on its particle size distribution, whether it falls in the grading limits for sand in zones 1 to 4 as per BS 882 or not. Also the sand should be tested for the presence of both organic and inorganic impurities.
As far as I now literature have not said much on it. However it is always to confirm with sieve analysis and decide how good is the desert sand to be use as construction material. From the laymen's point of view desert sand looks sandy which actually is not.Conduct sieve analysis for the solution.
desert sand is too round and too uniform for good concrete. A interesting approach is to use them to make sand bags. It saves the cost and environmental impact from the cement and avoids its transport as well. There are a couple of very interesting examples.
Desert sand can be used as a building material if it fulfills the requirements of ASTM designation C33.
From use in concrete point of view,
Desert sand is single size and hence does not comply with the particle size gradation in the standards. You can use it if you mix it with other sizes to bring the mixture within the acceptable limits. You also need to wash it to remove dust and check its chloride and sulfate contents if the desert is close to the sea.
Yes you can use it in concrete provided it satisfies the requirements (standards and specifications). You should test for grading, fineness, absorption and deleterious substances. There are some high quality desert sands that can be used in construction. However, extra fineness may be a problem in the workability but advantageous in stability and cohesion.
Yes, there is an example:
in Algeria a research team is developping Bricks made from waste and desert sand.
hello Sougrati,
thank you for your answer. Do you have some articles about this research team? Or some contact details? email? link?
Before using desert sand as a building materials following points needs to be consider
1. Physical and chemical properties of desert sand?
2. comparative study related to transportation cost and digging cost w.r.t. river bed sand?
If there are some toxic and hazaradeous components are present one has to avoid using such kind of sand.
First of all details characterization is necessary?
Compared with standard construction sand, desert sand grains are finer and smoother so their surface chemistry would not be able to offer sufficient number of multi-directional chemical linkages. If their grain size is too small, the slurry slip and the concrete would have poor strength.
Where there are no other options and in areas where there is a lot of it, then desert sand may be used, but it will lead to concrete with poor strength. For some applications, this may not be a problem.
you can also have a look at this
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950061806001917
I would just add that desert sand usually contains high amounts of salt, which is very bad for concrete as it will rust the steel reinforcement, and also severely affects the strength of the concrete.
Laboratory studies of dune sand for the use of construction industry in Sri
Lanka
Upali de Silva Jayawardena, Roshan Wijesuriya, Gayan Abayaweera, and Tharaka Viduranga, University of Peradeniya, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
([email protected], 0094 81 2393500)
We don't have deserts in Sri Lanka. Therefore I have no experience of the properties of deserts sand. However it may be a mixture of lot of impurities.
Yes, there are some reaserchers focusing on this sand in China recently. But the related articles possibly was written in Chinese.
" desert sand usually contains high amounts of salt" ??? !!!
Why cant we use Desert Sand? Not all places on earth is blessed with river sand?
The particles of Desert Sand( wind-blown sediments ) are too smooth and fine to bind together, hence it is not recommended for mass concreting.
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fastcompany.com%2F90165549%2Fthe-next-great-building-material-it-could-be-sand-from-deserts%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR3uebPpe5O4Qrh-8VGK7M69y1FuHGIO3KcAM5jrjAIJO0mzTDX4rkKSW9Q&h=AT0Pn3PsALMJfLLnAdB9INI3jhNk1GEu71GmwDxI8ZKTT2ZvnikkPJkDyS8dg__7tJVz80j2VYASk3ENelnjGNWvgm5bef1LVJywtu8rFuZbpctNEp1slIH1CgpTfFicRQ
The properties of desert sand are almost thesame as that of fine river sand. They range from 0.02 - 0.1mm in diameter for a well graded desert sand.
One can use the desert sand, but it is absolutely necessary to carry out characterization of this sand and check with physical and chemical properties of this sand and with relevant standards.
One has to check the pre-history of source and quantity available along with the economical fusibility with natural river source for sand to be utilized.
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