AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON UTILIZATION OF VARIOUS WASTES IN THE LEAN CONCRETE BLOCKS

The masonry unit used for the construction of masonry works in the western Gujarat region of India, Kutch is a lean concrete blocks of size varying as per the purpose of masonry work i.e. for load bearing or partition work. These blocks are manufactured by blending the cement, fine aggregate and coarse aggregate at proportion of 1:6:4 with w/c of about 0.5, the resulting mix is than utilized to produce the blocks with help of vibro-pressure machineries. These consume the natural resources such as natural fine aggregate and natural coarse aggregate and hence diminishes the environment gradually. Generation of wastes from various industries also results in pollution of environment because of improper disposal of these wastes and lack of exploration for utilization of such wastes. This paper identifies a potential use of wastes from foundry industry and construction industry for utilization in construction industry and represents the experimental investigation on utilization of foundry waste as a partial replacement of natural sand by 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and recycled aggregate as a partial replacement of natural coarse aggregate by 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. This various trial mixes are compared in the terms of compression strength and water absorption with respect to the standard mix proportion. The result shows the increase in compressive strength and reduction in water absorption with increase in content of foundry sand whereas reduction in compressive strength and increase in water absorption with increase in content of recycled aggregate.