Effects of blending manufactured sand and offshore sand on rheological, mechanical and durability characterization of lime-cement masonry mortar

Abstract

The environment and ecological systems are suspected of serious drawbacks as a result of the over-extraction of river sand for construction activities. An attempt was made in this research on completely replacing river sand in lime-cement masonry mortars with blended sands comprised of manufactured sand and offshore sand. The S and N types (as defined in the standards) were selected for producing masonry mortars with different sand contents. For each type, five mortars were prepared to contain river sand alone (reference mortar), manufactured sand alone, and three blended sands (replacing manufactured sand by offshore sand at 25%, 50%, and 75%). Because of the dominant roles of particle angularity, surface roughness, and gradation of the alternatives, the performance of mortars was evaluated and compared based on these sand characteristics. Furthermore, the level of statistical significance of the experiment results was analyzed from a single factor one-way ANOVA test. Outcomes of this research revealed that the blended sands and manufactured sand declined the fresh state performance of mortars than the river sand mortars. However, most of the stiffened and durability properties of alternative mortars were significantly advanced than the reference mortars.