Effect of Crushed Sand and Limestone Crushed Sand Dust on the Rheology of Cement Mortar

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of limestone crushed sand dust (LCSD) on rheological properties of cement mortar based on crushed sand (CS) with different mineralogical nature (limestone and siliceous). A LCSD with a specific surface BET of 1470 m2/kg was used at different content replacement by mass of sand (0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 %). The water-cement ratio (W/C) and the cement content were kept constant for all mixes. The results show that the slump decreased as well as the flow time, the yield stress and the viscosity of mortar increased with the increase in LCSD content. Thus, the mortar based on limestone crushed sand (LS) has a low loss of rheological properties compared with a mortar based on siliceous crushed sand (SS). Yet, for 0 % of LCSD, it was found that the rheological properties are nearly equal for both CSs. The use of superplasticizer (Sp) significantly improves the workability and rheological properties. However, the rheological behavior of mortar has been strongly affected by increasing the volume concentration of CS whereas the effect of CS on fresh mortar presents significantly greater disadvantages compared with rolled sand (RS).

Keywords

• limestone dust
• crushed sand
• mortar
• rheology
• vane rheometer