The effect of stone dust content in sand

Abstract The influence of the stone dust content in sand on mortar properties are presented in this paper. Three stone dusts (quartz, granite and limestone) were incorporated in percentages ranging from 0 to 20% as replacement for equal weights of sand. The water demand, compressive and flexural strength, porosity and drying shrinkage were analyzed on portland cement mortars at constant flow (110±5%) The results showed an improvement in strength of mortars containing stone dust at early ages, while water demand and porosity increased with increasing dust content. This gain of strength is attributable to the acceleration of the cement hydration at early ages due to effect of the stone dust. At later ages, no detrimental effects were observed.