Monograph:

The world is over drying up with the consumption of natural resources and concerns are towards maintaining the ecological balance by finding suitable, sustainable and effective building materials. With recent advancements in the field of Construction industry lot of research is being carried out to find alternate sustainable building materials. In the same line, the present research focuses on the feasibility study of utilization of by products from stone-quarry mines and waste LDPE to be used as a replacement of natural sand in concrete. In the study a partial replacement of natural sand is done by quarry dust along with the addition of waste LDPE in 0,25,50,75 and 100 %. Fresh and hardened concrete properties of the conventional and modified concrete had been studied. The waste plastic (LDPE) is used in the form of very fine crushed fibers to arrest micro cracks and thus contribute in durability of concrete. The Study focuses on the detailed study of XRD , SEM along with EDS for examining the particles of the conventional material and the possible new material. SEM images of quarry dust showed lamellar structure which is responsible for increasing the strength carrying capacity. SEM linked with energy dispersive spectroscopy lets high resolution identification of elements and compounds present in 2-D cross-sections of aggregate samples. SEM linked with EDS found to be instrumental for visually examining a particle that is too small to be seen under an optical microscope. The SEM functions by aiming an electron beam at the surface of the sample. EDS examines the elements present in a sample based on the detection of x-rays radiated by that specimen. High resolution images taken with SEM can be examined to find several factors that may probably relate to the performance of micro fines in concrete. The test results showed that particles are almost spherical in shape and helpful in improving workability of concrete. The EDS analysis of LDPE represents that there is no such element causing harm to the concrete and can be used effectively to reduce permeability and enhance strength.

To read further you can click on Download link.