the potential of dune sand for use in structural concretes

Abstract

The world population is about 7.4 billion but only about 1 billion live in desert areas which occupy 33% of the available land on earth. This poor demography in desert zone is essentially due to difficult living conditions including housing. To build in these areas which are generally distant from the main towns where construction materials are available and purchasable at reasonable cost, Contractors usually include some supplementary fees to cover the transport of materials. Dune sand represents about 20% of deserts worldwide. The study focused on four (4) samples of dune sands randomly collected from Nyiri Desert(Kenya) and two (2) samples from Sahara Desert (Chad). After the assessment of chemical and physical properties of dune sand sampled, results showed that dune sand samples from Nyiri Desert contained 77.75% average particle size of less than 0.600mm while those of Sahara Desert had 97%. This study showed that the full replacement of ordinary sand by dune sand samples from Kenya and Chad, there were 22% and 41% average loss of compressive strength after 28 days respectively. The cost estimation of dune sand concrete showed that when dune sand concrete is used for construction industry in desert environment from Kenya and Chad, that would result in an average cost and time reduction estimated at USD 30 and USD 66 per cubic meter respectively. From the various studies carried out aimed at investigating the potential of dune sand for use in structural concrete, to ascertain the use of sand dune concrete in construction industries, it would be suggested that some further studies should be focused on durability over one year, splitting tensile strength and flexural strength tests.