Shrinkage, absorption and high-temperature performance of concrete incorporating quarry and limestone dust as partial replacement of fine aggregate

Sand is considered the most consumed natural resource after water. However, the world's sand deposits are depleting day by day due to their over-extraction for different industrial uses, which is becoming another sustainability threat. Incorporating and blending industrial waste to replace some constituent materials in concrete is becoming the new norm for environmental sustainability. This practice can benefit the construction industry and the environment at large. This investigation aims to study the durability properties of concrete produced with different industrial wastes as a partial replacement material for fine aggregate. Considerably, quarry dust and limestone dust were used to substitute the fine aggregate at different percentages (5%, 10% and 15%) and cured conventionally at 7, 28, 90 and 180 days. The durability properties of concrete were examined through water absorption, drying shrinkage, chloride and sulphate attack test and elevated temperature test. The experimental result shows that the optimum content of both quarry dust and limestone dust is 15% in terms of concrete durability. The durability performance of these materials indicates a significant filling effect which was obvious in the reduction of water absorption and dry shrinkage. Therefore, it is reasonable to utilize these materials as fine aggregate to produce concrete that is durable, economically feasible and environmentally sustainable.