6th International Conference on Advances in Civil Engineering (ICACE-2022)

21-23 December 2022

CUET, Chattogram, Bangladesh
www.cuet.ac.bd/icace

MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF CONCRETE CONTAINING SANDS

FROM DIFFERENT LOCATIONS OF BANGLADESH
M. Karim1*, J. Rahman2, P. Barua2, K. S. Ahmed3, S. M. A. Hoq4
1Graduate Student, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh, email:
mahbub.karim@northsouth.edu
2 UnderGraduate Student, North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
3 Associate professor, Military Institute of Science and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh, email: drksa@ce.mist.ac.bd
4Assistant professor, North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, email: ashfaqul.hoq@northsouth.edu
*Corresponding Author

Abstract

Sands from different sources in Bangladesh exhibit a wide range of physical and non-mechanical properties. It is
expected that these variations may impart an effect on the mechanical properties of the concrete, where fine
aggregate is one of the major ingredients. In Bangladesh, “Sylhet sand” is preferred among the different sources
of fine aggregate as it is presumed to produce the best quality of concrete in terms of strength and durability.
However, due to the availability and price, fine aggregates collected from different sources other than the “Sylhet
sand” are also used in the construction industry. Here, a comparative study on the physical and mechanical
properties of concrete containing fine aggregates collected from Sylhet, Feni, Rangpur, Kushtia, and Panchagarh
has been conducted to observe the effect of fine aggregate origins on the quality of produced concrete. Initially,
the physical properties such as grain size distribution, fineness modulus, dry density, specific gravity, and
absorption capacity values were measured for the fine aggregate samples, and compared to that of the ASTM
standards. In order to observe the effect of the fine aggregate sources on the compressive strength of concrete,
concrete cylindrical specimens were cast with two wide used mixing ratios where cement: fine aggregate: coarse
aggregate are to be 1:2:4 and 1:1.5:3, and tested under compression up to failure. The experimental result revealed
that the wide variation of properties of sands from the different sources have a nominal effect on the strength
properties of concrete for a less supervised work compared to that of a rich mix.

Keywords: fine aggregate, fineness modulus, concrete, compressive strength.

1. Introduction

Concrete is a highly variable composite, which is the major construction material used in Bangladesh. Ththare
many factors that can cause the variability in different properties of concrete. From variability of individual
material properties to workmanship during casting, and later on, even maintenance can affect the property of
hardened concrete. As strict supervision can ensure the last two factors, properties of different ingredients that are
used in concrete play the prime role to regulate the quality of concrete. In concrete production cement is used as
the binding material, aggregates mainly act as the filler, and a fix proportion of water is used for maintaining
quality. The entire requirement of aggregates is provided by coarse and fine portion; where stone and bricks chips
are used as coarse aggregate, and sand is used as fine aggregate. Quality control and assurance of standard
aggregates is crucial for making desirable concrete, and thus American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)
provided standard specification C33 [1] for aggregate in producing concrete.

Most of the sands used in the construction industry of Bangladesh are extracted from the river bed, and being a
riverine country, there is plethora of sand sources in Bangladesh. It is expected that the different properties of
sand from different sources will be different, and thus it can affect the property of concrete. In regular construction
work, people use mostly local sands for concrete production due to availability and lesser price. As the
compressive strength of the concrete produced with locally available sand is not usually checked out of city area,
it is important to investigate the properties of local sand for ensuring optimum compressive strength. This study
collected sand samples from five different locations in Bangladesh, i.e., Sylhet, Feni, Rangpur, Kushtia, and
Panchagarh, to assess whether they meet the standard requirements or not.

Some previous works have investigated the effect of sand on the properties of concrete. Donza (2002) studied the
effect of crushed sand on high strength concrete [2]. Ngugi (2014) studied the effect of sand impurities to the
compressive strength of concrete [3]. Mahmud (2019) studied that the compressive strength of concrete is greatly
influenced by the mix ratio of Sylhet and local sand for two types of brick aggregates [4]. Akinboboye (2015)
compared the compressive strength of concrete using sand from different sources of Nigeria [5]. Rahman (2020)
collected sand from Sylhet and other three different locations from Chittagong division to find out the best source

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 6th International Conference on Advances in Civil Engineering (ICACE-2022)
21-23 December 2022
CUET, Chattogram, Bangladesh
www.cuet.ac.bd/icace

of sand for improved strength of concrete [6]. Another study collected sand from ten different locations of
Chittagong to produce concrete cubes for testing compressive strength [7]. Among these cited works, two previous
research work [6-7] directly work on the effect of sand sources on the property of concrete, however, both of these
works focus on a particular region of Bangladesh. Another thing is, different ingredient proportion and water-
cement ratio was applied for a target compressive strength [6], which makes the used amount of sand variable for
different batches. To meet this gap, sand was collected from five different sources, spread all over Bangladesh:
Sylhet, Feni, Rangpur, Kushtia, and Panchagarh. Fig. 1 presents the sand samples from different sources used in
this study. Concrete batches were produced using two mixing ratios of cement, sand and stone chips commonly
used in Bangladesh, with a fixed water-cement ratio. Thus from different batches the variable is only the source
of sand.

The main obejctive of this study is to measure the effect of sand sources on the property of concrete. Physical
properties, such as workability, unit weight, and mechanical properties such as compressive strength of concrete
are evaluated and compared.

Feni Kushtia Rangpur

Sylhet

Fig. 1 Sand samples from different locations of Bangladesh.

2. Methodology

To observe the variation in different non-mechanical properties of sand samples from different sources, material
testing was performed as per ASTM standards. Material properties, e.g., absorption capacity, specific gravity,
bulk unit weight was determined. Concrete was produced using arbitrary volume method using two different
mixing ratio; Cement : Fine aggregate : Coarse aggregate to be 1:2:4 and 1:1.5:3, with a water-cement ratio of 0.6
and 0.4 respectively. The first mix design is to simulate a less supervised work, and the second one is for a rich
mix under strict supervision. To observe the effect of sand sources, concrete cylindrical specimens were produced,
and workability in terms of slump value and unit weight of the fresh concrete were measured. 28-Day compressive

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 6th International Conference on Advances in Civil Engineering (ICACE-2022)
21-23 December 2022
CUET, Chattogram, Bangladesh
www.cuet.ac.bd/icace

strength of concrete was fixed as the main parameter and measured for assessing the mechanical property of
hardened concrete.

3. Experimental Program

At the first phase of the program, different non-mechanical properties, such as particle size distribution, bulk unit
weight, specific gravity and absorption capacity of the sand samples and stone chips were evaluated. All the tests
of this study were conducted following ASTM specifications as per Table 1.

Table 1. List of test specification.

Investigation Test specification followed
Sieve analysis ASTM C136 [8]
Specific gravity and absorption capacity ASTM C127[9], C128 [10]
Bulk unit weight ASTM C29 [11]
Slump test of concrete ASTM C143 [12]
Compressive strength of concrete ASTM C39 [13]

In the second phase of this study, concrete was produced to represent two specific cases of regular construction
sites in Bangladesh. The first case was considered to be a construction site with less supervision and lower target
strength, where workers add excess water during concrete production for more workability. For this case, concrete
was produced using arbitrary volume method keeping the mixing ratio of cement : fine aggregate : coarse
aggregate to be 1:2:4, with a water-cement ratio of 0.6. The second case was selected to represent a site with strict
supervision and higher target strength, where mixing ratio of cement : fine aggregate : coarse aggregate was set
to be 1:1.5:3, with a water-cement ratio of 0.4. It should be noted, that these two are the most common mixing
ratio used for general concrete work in the construction sites of Bangladesh. For both the cases, five different
batches of concrete were produced, where amount and type of cement and coarse aggregate (stone chips) was kept
constant. Only variable is the type of sand (as from different sources), where the amount of sand was kept same
by bulk volume. All the stone chips and sand samples were sprayed with water the before concrete production, as
this is followed in the construction sites of Bangladesh, to keep the aggregates on saturated surface dry condition
on the casting day. It was realized that this water may alter the water-cement ratio set earlier, and thus moisture
content of the aggregates were measured on the casting day for any adjustment.

4. Results and Discussions

Particle size distributions from sieve analysis tests [9] of sand samples from different sources are presented in Fig.
2. It can be seen from Fig. 2 that the particle size distribution is almost similar for sand sample collected from
Feni, Rangpur and Kushtia. Sand sample from Panchagarh is coarser than these three sand samples. And Sylhet
sand is coarser than all the other sand samples. Fineness modulus values of these sand samples as reported in
Table 2 also indicate similar trend. In the same Fig. 2, standard gradation requirement of fine aggregate for
producing concrete as per ASTM C33 [1] is also shown. Limit set by the ASTM standard indicates Sylhet sand
fit perfectly within the limit and thus conform to the specification, however the rest of the sand samples do not
meet the requirement set by the ASTM C 33 [1]. The same standard also impose a requirement on Fineness
Modulus value should be from 2.3 to 3.1. Again, only Sylhet sand meets the requirement.

Physical properties like bulk unit weight, specific gravity and absorption capacity values were tabulated in Table
2. Specific gravity values of the sand sample vary within a narrow range, sample from Rangpur being the lowest.
Dry rodded unit weight value is maximum for Sylhet sand and lowest for Rangpur sand. Feni sand has the
maximum absorption capacity, and Kushtia sand has the minimum absorption capacity.

Table 2. Non-mechanical properties of the aggregates

Specific Gravity Bulk Unit Absorption
Location of Fineness
Weight Capacity
Sand Sample Modulus Bulk Dry Bulk SSD Apparent
(pcf) (%)
Sylhet 3.01 2.51 2.54 2.59 97 1.21
Feni 1.70 2.48 2.53 2.60 91 1.83
Rangpur 1.63 2.32 2.35 2.39 85 1.21
Kushtia 1.54 2.44 2.46 2.49 94 0.81
Panchagarh 2.19 2.60 2.63 2.68 92 1.21

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 6th International Conference on Advances in Civil Engineering (ICACE-2022)
21-23 December 2022
CUET, Chattogram, Bangladesh
www.cuet.ac.bd/icace

100

80

60
% Passing

40

20
Sylhet Feni
Rangpur Kushtia
Panchagarh Lower bound
Upper bound
0
0.1 1 10
Sieve size (mm)
Fig. 2 Gradation curve of sand samples.

Slump values of fresh concrete and average unit weight of concrete from different batches were measured and
tabulated in Table 3 for the 1:1.5:3 mix ratio. For the same water-cement ratio, concrete using sand from Feni and
Kushtia provide minimum slump value, where concrete using sand from Rangpur provide maximum slump value.
However as per Fig. 2, particle size distribution is almost similar for sand samples from these three locations. This
indicates interlocking between particles from Feni and Kushtia sand is higher than the sand sample from Rangpur.
The reason could be angular shape and rough surface of Feni and Kushtia sand compare to rounded shape and
smooth surface of Rangpur sand. This probable interlocking between particles is expected to contribute towards
compressive strength of concrete. Sylhet and Panchagarh sand provide comparable workability, and slightly
higher than the concrete using Feni and Kushtia sand. The variation in the unit weight of concrete using different
sources of sand is found to be insignificant.

Table 3. Slump value and unit weight of concrete.

Unit weight
Slump
Sand Location (pcf)
(in)
Fresh Concrete 24-h Mature
Sylhet 2.25 144 142
Feni 1.5 141 140
Rangpur 3 141 139
Kushtia 1.5 141 140
Panchagarh 2.5 143 141

Average compressive strength values on 28-days maturity period for different batches of concrete are presented
in Fig. 3. It reveals that the different sources of sand have nominal effect on the compressive strength of concrete
for the batches with mixing ratio of 1:2:4 and water-cement ratio of 0.6. For the 1:1.5:3 batches with water-cement
ratio of 0.4, Sylhet sand produces concrete with maximum compressive strength. With the finer sand, and lower
fineness modulus value, compressive strength value decreases, except for Feni Sand, which provided higher
compressive strength than the Panchagarh sand. This could be due to the shape and roughness effect of Feni sand
which promotes interlocking and thus may contributed to the compressive strength, as discussed before. Another
important point to note is, that the compressive strength values of 1:1.5:3 batches increased by significant amount
than the 1:2:4 batches, which indicates that the proportion of the different ingredients of concrete and the water-
cement ratio are more significant parameters than the sources of sand. This shows the importance of water-cement

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 6th International Conference on Advances in Civil Engineering (ICACE-2022)
21-23 December 2022
CUET, Chattogram, Bangladesh
www.cuet.ac.bd/icace

ratio, or in other word proper supervision, as the addition of water in the mixer drum during on-site concrete
production is mainly done by the worker for general concrete work.

5000
28-Day Compressive Strength

4000
(psi)

3000

2000

1000

0
Sylhet FeniRangpur Kushtia Panchagarh
Location of Sand
Mixing Ratio=1:2:4 with W/C=0.6 Mixing Ratio=1:1.5:3 with W/C=0.4

Fig. 3. Effect of sand sources on the compressive strength of concrete.

5. Conclusions

Different sand samples were collected from different locations of Bangladesh, and the effect of these sand samples
on the properties of concrete is evaluated in this study. By arbitrary volume method, the two most common mix
ratios used in Bangladesh are followed, with cement: fine aggregate: coarse aggregate to be 1:2:4 and 1:1.5:3. To
simulate less and strict supervision, water-cement ratio was set to be 0.6 and 0.4 respectively. The major finding
from this study are as follows:
 The gradation curve of the sand samples shows that only Sylhet sand falls in between the ASTM upper
and lower ranges. Sand samples from Panchagar is also close though it is out of the lower bound range
of ASTM.
 Particle size distribution is almost similar for sand samples from Feni, Rangpur and Kushtia. Panchagarh
sand is a little bit coarser than these three sand samples. The fineness modulus of the sands has been
found in wide variety ranges from 1.54 to 3.01. Sylhet sand shows the highest value of FM where Kustia
sand shows the lowest. Therefore, Sylhet sand is coarse than all the sand samples. Sylhet sand perfectly
meet the gradation requirement and fineness modulus value as set in ASTM C33 document for concrete
production. The rest of the sand samples do not conform to the specification.
 Specific gravity and absorption capacity of the sand samples from different location do not vary
significantly.
 Dry rodded unit weight value is found maximum for Sylhet sand and lowest for Rangpur sand.
 Sylhet sand produces concrete with higher compressive strength than the other sand samples studied in
this research, keeping rest of the variable same. Generally, as the sand is finer than the standard level,
the lower the compressive strength is found.
 Proportion of different ingredients of concrete and water-cement ratio are more significant parameters
than the sources of sand. For low-strength, less supervised work, sand samples from different locations
are expected to produce same quality of concrete. Only for higher strength concrete and strict supervised
work, effect of sand from different location will come into play.

It should be noted that all the findings stated above are based on the sand samples used in this study. Numerous
features associated to this research require supplementary consideration. Similar tests with larger batch size should
be investigated for variability. It is recommended to determine if the findings of this study are applicable to high
strength concrete as well. Durability, shape and surface roughness of the sand samples can be investigated, which
was beyond the scope of this study.

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 6th International Conference on Advances in Civil Engineering (ICACE-2022)
21-23 December 2022
CUET, Chattogram, Bangladesh
www.cuet.ac.bd/icace

Acknowledgement

The authors express sincere gratitude to the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, North South
University (NSU) and the Department of Civil Engineering, Military Institute of Science & Technology (MIST)
for providing laboratory support to test materials. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and
do not necessarily reflect the views of those acknowledged.

References

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