Use of waste foundry sand with multiscale modeling in concrete

Abstract

This paper represents the study of mechanical properties of concrete by utilizing the waste foundry sand (WFS) as a replacement material in the production of concrete. Waste foundry sand is obtained from the industries where aluminum is cast, which is a sand used for the purpose of casting the moulds. WFS are used in different ratios such as 20%, 25% and 30% and also several investigations were carried out to determine the compressive strength, elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio with the help of the Bazant–Baweja (B3 model) using multiscale modeling at each level, American Concrete Institute (ACI model) and Indian Standards (IS method) to know the behavior of concrete. The proposed method does not require any prior information with respect to the mechanical properties of bond, for instance, modulus of elasticity or compressive strength. The test results related to the proposed model for elastic modulus at the level of concrete bearing a value of 36.92 kN/mm2 and 37.78 kN/mm2 for the water-to-cement ratio (w/c) 0.4 and 0.5, respectively. The test results produced that the strength of concrete up to 30% was relatively close when compared with control mixture (CM) for w/c-0.4, with an average increase of about 1.9%. Similarly, 20% of WFS usage had a variation of 6.1% when compared with the CM for w/c-0.5. The further strength reduction in WFS is recognized due to the fineness of WFS and also with the presence of dusty particles. From the results obtained, it is concluded that WFS can be replaced with 30% and 20% for 0.4 and 0.5 w/c, respectively, with an effective manner in the production of concrete.