Mechanical properties of concrete with foundry sand andcoconut shell as partial replacement for coarse and fine aggregate

Concrete is one of the largest consumer products all over the world. Concrete consumes large quantity of natural ingredients like river sand in the form of fine aggregate and crushed stone or gravel in the form of coarse aggregate. With due consideration for sustainable construction, the concrete can be minimized by utilizing the waste products from various industries as an alternative for components in concrete. This paper deals with reuse of industrial waste foundry sand and agricultural waste coconut shell in biased form for fine aggregate and coarse aggregate [Siddique, R and Kadri, EH (2011)]. From the mechanical properties of concrete containing both the waste products, the optimum replacement levels were arrived at 25 % and 15% for waste foundry sand and coconut shell. The durability properties such as water absorption, porosity, sorptivity and water permeability are found for improvised concrete and compared with normal concrete.