International Research Journal of Education and Technology

This research is concerned with the strength, deflection, ductility and durability investigation of a contemporary construction material named as This research is concerned with the strength, deflection, ductility and durability investigation of a contemporary construction material named as Sea Sand Concrete. An attempt is made to identify the potential use of sea sand as fine aggregate in concrete instead of natural fine aggregate. Sea sand was extracted from Nagoor, Nagapattinam District, Tamilnadu, India after getting the approval from concerned authorities.

Chloride content which leads to corrosion of steel reinforcement is the fundamental problem in incorporating sea sand as an aggregate in concrete. In this study, three different methods have been carried out for the removal of chloride content. Simulated rain test method was the first one tried and since it did not prove to be good, other two methods, Water wash and Hot water wash methods were adopted further. Concrete made after washing the Sea sand with water is termed as Water washed Sea Sand Concrete (SS) and the Concrete made after washing the sea sand with hot water (100 °C) is called as Hot Water washed Sea Sand Concrete (HSS).

Tests were conducted on fresh and hardened state of SS and HSS such as workability, compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength with various fractions of sea sand aggregate starting from 10% to 100% with the increment of 10%. The results showed the comprehensive improvement in the slump value and the mechanical properties due to increase in sea sand content. Consequently the tests were carried out for durability characteristics and the results indicated the remarkable increment in durability characteristics of sea sand replaced concrete which provides better resistance against adverse environment. Further the study has been extended to