Effect of the type of sand on the fracture and mechanical properties of sand concrete

The principal objective of this study is to deepen the characterization studies already led on sand concretes in previous works. Indeed, it consists in studying the effect of the sand type on the main properties of sand concrete: fracture and mechanical properties. We particularly insist on the determination of the fracture characteristics of this material which apparently have not been studied. To carry out this study, four different types of sand have been used: dune sand (DS), river sand (RS), crushed sand (CS) and river-dune sand (RDS). These sands differ in mineralogical nature, grain shape, angularity, particle size, proportion of fine elements, etc. The obtained results show that the particle size distribution of sand has marked its influence in all the studied properties of sand concrete since the sand having the highest diameter and the best particle size distribution has given the best fracture and mechanical properties. The grain shape, the angularity and the nature of sand have also marked their influence: thanks to its angularity and its limestone nature, crushed sand yielded good results compared to river and dune sands which are characterized by rounded shape and siliceous nature. Finally, it should further be noted that the sand concrete presents values of fracture and mechanical properties slightly lower than those of ordinary concrete. Compared to mortar, although the mechanical strength is lower, the fracture parameters are almost comparable. In all cases, the sand grains are debonded from the paste cement during the fracture which means that the crack goes through the paste-aggregate interface.