Study on Mechanical Properties of High Performance Concrete using M-Sand

Background/Objectives: National Green Tribunal which has taken cognisance of this and has enforced severe restrictions on sand mining from river beds and relevant laws for obtaining licence have been made very stringent. Hence there is a need to look for alternatives to river sand without sacrificing performance of concrete / mortar. Methods/Statistical analysis:  In this work, experimentally investigate the effect of M-sand in concrete by replacing the river sand (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) and develop a high performance high strength concrete with target strength of 40MPa. Findings: The investigations are carried out to study the effect of M-sand on mechanical properties of concrete such as Compression, Tensile and Flexural Strength at the age of 3, 7, 28 and 56 days. Result shows that, there is a liner increase in compressive strength with the replacement of 0 to 100% river sand by M-sand. Replacement of 100% of river sand by M-Sand induced higher compressive, split tensile and flexural strength at the end of 28 days. The increase in strength was in the order of 12-18% as compared to concrete with river sand. Similar results also showed an increase in the strength parameters at the longer duration of curing periods. Applications: Studies revealed that, the use of M-sand in concrete for the construction purpose is acceptable for the concrete of grade upto M40 and also reduce the exploitation of river sand