Study of sand concrete from Sénégal

Résumé

Sand concrete is often used in aggregate-poor countries. Its main component is sand. It is a type of concrete without any fine gravel consisting mostly of sand, able to provide strength as satisfactory as those of classical concrete. As Senegal is a country abounding in sand, it is interesting to carry out a physical characterization of the different kinds of sand in order to see their influence on this sand concrete and to assess the performances of this concrete in terms of use and strength.

Types of sand from various quarries in Senegal were studied: Dakar (Kayar) Mbour (Ndiaganiao), Thies (Thienaba). Crushed basalt from Thies (Ngoundiane) was also tested. Different physical characteristics of these types of sand were determined in order to see their effect on the overall sand behavior.

The results show that the crushed sand with a sand equivalent of 80.29 and a modulus of fineness of 3.176 gives the sand concrete a better compressive strength (28.65 MPa) compared to the other sands.