This paper is interested in the incorporation of crushed sand and desert sand in the composition the self compacting concretes (SCC). Desert dune sand, which has a fine extra granulometry, and the crushed sand, which contains an important content of fines, can constitute interesting components for SCC. Part II consists in studying the behaviour of SCC containing various sands with different origins. These sands, with different sizes, consist of several combinations of rolled sand (RS), crushed sand (CS) and desert sand (DS). The study examines the influence of the granular combination of sands on the characteristics in the fresh and the hardened state of SCC. The results of the experimental tests showed an improvement of the workability of the fresh SCC by combining sands of varied granulometry. The addition of the DS to CS or to RS allowed the increase of the mixture viscosity but decreased the mechanical strengths. Furthermore, the CS-RS combinations increased the compressive and the tensile strengths of the studied SCC. The optimized formulations of sands gave the highest performances of the SCC.

This paper examines the incorporation of the crushed sand (CS) and desert sand (DS) in the formation of self compacting concrete (SCC). These sands have been substituted for the rolled sand (RS), which is currently the only sand used in concretes and which is likely to run out in our country. DS, which comes from the Tunisian Sahara in the south, is characterized by a tight distribution of grains size. CS, a by-product of careers containing a significant amount of fines up to 15%, is characterized by a spread out granulometry having a maximum diameter of around 5 mm. These two sands are considered as aggregates for the SCC. This first part of the study consists in analyzing the influence of the type of sand on the parameters of composition of the SCC. These sands consist of several combinations of 3 sands (DS, CS and RS). The method of formulation of the adopted SCC is based on the filling of the granular void by the paste. The CS substitution to the RS made it possible, for all the proportions, to decrease the granular voids, to increase the compactness of the mixture and to decrease the water and adding fillers proportioning. These results were also obtained for a moderate substitution of DS/CS (< 40%) and a weak ratio of DS/RS (20%). For higher proportions, the addition of DS to CS or RS did not improve the physical characteristics of the SCC granular mixture.

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Abstract. Self-compacting concretes (SCC) are highly fluid concretes that require high proportions in sand and fine particles with respect to the ordinary concrete (OC). The crushed sand (CS), spread granulometry, is a by-product of crushing rock mass. The desert sand (DS) is an extra fine sand, characterized by a tight distribution of grain size. Containing significant levels of fine sand, these two sands can be both interesting components of the SCC. This research is to incorporate the CS in the composition of concrete and to study the effect of its gradual replacement by the DS on the behavior of the fresh and hardened SCC. The experimental study shows that parameters of SCC workability are improved when the SC is partially replaced by the DS (<30%). However, at high levels of DS (> 30%), additional quantities of water and superplasticizer are necessary to meet the self-compacting properties. The mechanical strength decreases when adding DS to CS, but they are reaching acceptable values for DS in moderate proportioning. The performance of SCC is much better than those of OC using the same aggregates. Specification tests of durability show that the coefficients of water absorption by capillarity and by immersion increase when adding DS to CS, while the coefficient of permeability decreases.Résumé. Les bétons autoplaçants (BAP) sont des bétons très fluides qui demandent des dosages élevés en sables et en éléments fins par rapport au béton ordinaire (BO). Le sable de concassage (SC), à granularité étalée, est un sous-produit de concassage des roches massives. Le sable du désert (SD) est un sable extra-fin, caractérisé par une distribution serrée de grosseur des grains. Renfermant des teneurs importantes en fines, ces deux sables peuvent êtres des composants intéressants des BAP. Cette recherche consiste à incorporer le SC dans la composition des bétons et étudier l'effet de son remplacement progressif par le SD sur le comportement à l'état frais et durci des BAP. L'étude expérimentale montre que les paramètres d'ouvrabilité des BAP sont améliorés lorsque le SC est partiellement remplacé par le SD (< 30%). Cependant, à une teneur This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.