Quarry dust fine powder as substitute for ordinary portland cement in concrete mix

Tremendous efforts have been done in the area of concrete technology to study the utilization of by-products and waste materials which can be used as a partial cement replacement in concrete production as well as identifying the benefits of these alternative materials as cement in concrete. Quarry dust as a by-product from crushing of coarse aggregates during quarrying activities has received considerable attention to enhance the properties of concrete. Thus, this paper reports the research conducted on the suitability of quarry dust fine powder (QDFP) as cementitious material in concrete. The performance in terms of its mechanical and durability index were evaluated on concrete composed of various w/b ratios (0.3, 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6) for replacement level of 3%, 5%, 10% and 15%, and with the inclusion of superplasticizer (Sp) to enhance the workability of concrete. The performance was measured at 7, 28, 60, 90 and 120 days of age. The results show that inclusion of QDFP did not enhance the compressive strength of concrete. Rebound number (RN) for QDFPSp concrete made of 0.3 and 0.4 w/b ratios achieved good quality, while for those made of 0.5 and 0.6 w/b ratios, it falls under category poor and fair respectively. In terms of durability index performance, the QDFP concrete in higher proportion (up to 15%) and with increasing w/b ratio from 0.3 to 0.6 increase the coefficient of permeability, while QDFP concrete can be considered as good concrete since the water absorption recorded below than 10% by mass.