Techno- Economical Study of Rigid Pavement by Using the Used Foundry Sand

Indian road network of almost 3.5 million km comprising both paved and unpaved surfaces is the world's second largest. Indian roads are presently constructed with not the right choice of material. The two major types of materials, bitumen and concrete are used in road construction in the country. A very small share of roads in the country is made of concrete. Though, it is superior on many counts as a medium for road buildings. The use of large amount of by-product materials as powder or fines not only avoids the requirement of landfills but also reduce the environmental problems. It is most essential to develop profitable building materials from used foundry sand. The innovative use of used foundry sand in concrete formulations as a fine aggregate replacement material was tested as an alternative to traditional concrete. The fine aggregate has been replaced by used foundry sand accordingly in the range of 0%, 10%, 30% & 50% by weight for M-20 grade concrete. Concrete mixtures were produced, tested and compared in terms of compressive and flexural strength with the conventional concrete. These tests were carried out to evaluate the mechanical properties for 7, 14 and 28 days. This research work is to investigate the behaviour of concrete while replacing used foundry sand in different proportion in concrete. This low cost concrete with good strength is used in rigid pavement for 3000 commercial vehicles per day (cvpd) and Dry Lean Concrete (DLC) 100mm thick for national highway to make it eco-friendly.