Construction and Building Materials 28 (2012) 421–426

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Construction and Building Materials

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Abrasion resistance and strength properties of concrete containing waste

foundry sand (WFS)
Gurpreet Singh a,⇑, Rafat Siddique b
a
Civil Engineering Department, RIMT (IET), Mandi Gobindgarh, Punjab, India
b
Civil Engineering Department, Thapar University, Patiala 147004, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The abrasion resistance and strength properties of concrete containing waste foundry sand (WFS) were
Received 27 June 2011 investigated. Sand (fine aggregate) was replaced with 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% of WFS by mass. The
Received in revised form 30 August 2011 water-to-cement ratio and the workability of mixtures were maintained constant at 0.40 and 85 ±
Accepted 30 August 2011
5 mm, respectively. Properties examined were compressive strength, splitting tensile strength,
Available online 4 November 2011
modulus of elasticity and abrasion resistance expressed as depth of wear. Test results indicated that
replacement of sand with WFS enhanced the 28-day compressive strength by 8.3–17%, splitting tensile
Keywords:
strength by 3.6–10.4% and modulus of elasticity by 1.7–6.4% depending upon the WFS content, and
Abrasion resistance
Concrete
showed continuous improvement in mechanical properties up to the ages of 365 days. Inclusion of
Strength properties WFS as sand replacement significantly improved the abrasion resistance of concrete at all ages. Strong
Waste foundry sand correlation exists between the abrasion resistance and each of the mechanical properties investigated.
Wear Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction et al. [5] have published some work on the effect of WFS on the
mechanical properties of concrete.
Foundry industry produced a large amount of by-product mate- Khatib and Ellis [1] investigated compressive strength of con-
rial during casting process. The ferrous metal casts in foundry are crete containing foundry sand as a partial replacement of natural
cast iron and steel, non ferrous metal are aluminum, copper, brass sand. Natural sand replaced by three type of foundry sand white
and bronze. Foundry industry use high quality specific size silica fine sand without the addition of clay and coal, the foundry sand
sand for their molding and casting process. Foundry successfully (blended) and WFS. Replacement % of natural fine sand class M
recycles and reuses the sand many times in foundry. When it can with foundry sand was 0%, 25%, 50% and 100%. They concluded that
no longer be reused in the foundry, it is removed from the industry. (i) strength of concrete was decreased due to increasing the
The removing sand is termed as waste foundry sand (WFS). These replacement % of foundry sand; and (ii) concrete incorporating
WFS is black in color and contain large amount of fines. white sand and WFS gives more strength than concrete made with
Classifications of foundry sand mainly depend upon the type of blended foundry sand.
binder and binder system used in metal casting. The typical phys- Siddique et al. [2] investigated compressive strength, splitting
ical and chemical property of WFS is dependent upon the type of tensile strength and MOE of concrete at the age of 28 and 56 days.
metal being poured, casting process, technology employed, type Replacement % of natural fine sand with WFS was 10%, 20% and
of furnaces and type of finishing process. Commonly clay bonded 30%. Based on test result they concluded that (a) compressive
sand (green sand) is used for mold making and is mixture of silica strength increased slightly with increase in WFS at all replacement
sand (80–95%), bentonite clay (4–10%), carbonaceous additive %; (b) compressive strength increased by 4.2%, 5.2% and 9.8% at the
(2–10%) and water (2–5%). Green sand (clay bonded sand) also age of 28 days when compared with ordinary concrete mix where
contains some chemical like magnesium oxide (MgO), potassium as 1.0%, 5.2% and 14.3% increased at the age of 56 days; (c) splitting
dioxide (K2O), titanium dioxide (TiO2). About 85% of green sand tensile strength increased with an increase in the WFS and (d) MOE
molding used for cast iron in the world. of waste foundry sand concrete at all age was higher than the or-
There has not been much work published on the use of waste dinary concrete. They also concluded that MOE of all concrete mix-
foundry sand (WFS) in concrete. Only few researchers Khatib and tures were increased with age.
Ellis [1], Siddique et al. [2,3], Etxeberria et al. [4], and Guney Siddique et al. [3] determined the compressive strength, split-
ting tensile strength, flexural strength and modulus of elasticity
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9988887047. of concrete containing WFS at 28, 56, 91 and 365 days. Fine aggre-
E-mail address: gurpreet_gsd@yahoo.com (G. Singh). gate were replaced with waste foundry sand with 10%, 20% and

0950-0618/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2011.08.087
422 G. Singh, R. Siddique / Construction and Building Materials 28 (2012) 421–426

Table 1 and investigate its effect on the strength properties and abrasion
Physical properties of Portland pozzolana cement. resistance of concrete.
Properties Results Requirement BIS:
1489(part 1):1991 2. Experimental program
Fineness (retained on 90 lm sieve) 5.3 10 max
Fineness: specific surface (air 310 225 min 2.1. Materials
permeability test) (m2/kg)
Normal consistency 35% – Portland pozzolana cement which conformed to BIS: 1489-Part-1 [6] was used.
Vicat time of setting (min) Properties of the cement are given in Table 1. Waste foundry sand was obtained
Initial 92 30 min from a local foundry. Its chemical composition is given in Table 2. Fine aggregate
Final 248 600 max was natural sand having a 4.75 mm nominal size. The coarse aggregate used in this
Compressive strength (MPa) investigation was 12.5 mm nominal size. Both aggregates and waste foundry sand
3 days 18.0 16.0 min were tested according to BIS: 383-1970 [7]. Their physical properties are given in
7 days 36.0 22.0 min Tables 3. To maintain the flow workability, commercially available polycarboxylate
28 days 47.8 33.0 min based super plasticizer was used.
Specific gravity 3.07 –
2.2. Mixture proportions

30%. They concluded that. (a) Compressive strength, splitting ten- Control mixture (M-1) was proportioned to have 28-day compressive strength
of 40 MPa according to BIS: 10262-1982 [8]. The ratio of concrete mix proportion
sile strength, flexure strength and MOE of concrete mixtures
was 1:1.23:2.54; 1 part cement, 1.23 part fine aggregates, and 2.54 part coarse
increased with increase in waste foundry sand content; (b) aggregates. Four additional concrete mixtures (M-2, M-3, M-4, and M-5) were pro-
mechanical properties of concrete mixtures increase with age for portioned where sand (fine aggregate) was replaced with 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% WFS
all the foundry sand content; (c) 8–19% compressive strength by mass respectively. All mixtures had constant water-to-cement ratio of 0.42. The
dosage of super plasticizer was varied so that the slump of all mixtures was
increased depending upon WFS % and testing age and (d)
85 ± 5 mm. Details of mixtures, and values of slump, unit weight, temperature,
6.5–14.5% splitting tensile strength, 7–12% flexure strength and and air content, determined as per BIS: 1199-1959 [9] are presented in Table 4.
5–12% modulus of elasticity increased with age and waste foundry
sand content. 2.3. Specimens preparation and casting
Etxeberria et al. [4] investigated the properties of concrete using
metallurgical industrial by product as aggregate. They used chem- 150 mm concrete cubes were cast for compressive strength, 150 mm diame-
ter  300 mm high cylinders for splitting tensile strength and modulus of elasticity,
ical foundry sand (QFS), green foundry sand (GFS) as a partial
and specimens of size 65  65  60 mm for abrasion resistance. All the specimens
replacement of fine aggregate and blast furnace slag (BFS) as a par- were prepared in accordance with BIS: 1199-1959 [9]. Soon after casting, test spec-
tial replacement of coarse raw aggregate. Replacement % was 25%, imens were covered with plastic sheets, and left in the casting room for 24 h at a
50% and 100% of fine and coarse aggregate. They concluded that (i) temperature of about 26 ± 1 °C. They were demolded after 24 h, and were put into
concrete made with chemically foundry sand and green foundry a water-curing room until the time of testing.

sand obtained more compressive strength, tensile strength and

2.4. Testing
modulus of elasticity than conventional concrete when made with
high water cement ratio; (ii) concrete made with chemically foun- Tests for compressive strength and modulus of elasticity were conducted in
dry sand obtained highest workability; (iii) concrete produced accordance with BIS: 516-1959 [10]. Splitting tensile strength test and abrasion
with metallurgical industrial by product suffered similar length resistance test was performed in accordance with BIS: 5816-1999 [11], BIS: 1237-
1980 [12] respectively, which is specifically for the determination of abrasion resis-
change to that conventional concrete and (iv) concrete made with
tance of concrete tiles. Specimens were tested at the ages of 28, 91 and 365 days.
waste material gave more compressive strength after high temper- For abrasion testing, specimens were weighed accurately on a digital balance.
ature exposure than conventional concrete. After initial drying at room temperature for about 1–2 h and weighing, the thick-
Guney et al. [5] investigated the re-usage of WFS in high ness of the specimens was measured at five points (i.e. one at the center and four
strength concrete. In this study the natural sand was replaced by corners). The grinding path of the disk of the abrasion-testing machine was evenly
distributed with 20-g of abrasive (aluminum) powder. The specimens were fixed in
WFS by 0%, 5%, 10% and 15%. They studied the slump test, compres- the holding device of the abrasion machine, and a load of 300 N was applied. The
sive strength, and splitting tensile strength. Based on the test result grinding machine was then put in motion at a speed of 30 rpm, and the abrasive
they concluded that increase in the replacement level of standard powder was continuously fed back into the grinding path so that it remained uni-
fine sand with WFS, decrease the compressive strength, tensile formly distributed in the track corresponding to the width of the test specimen. The
thickness and weight of specimens were taken every 10 min interval until the end
strength and MOE of concrete, but similar compressive strength,
of the test (60 min). The extent of abrasion was determined from the difference in
tensile strength and MOE were obtained from the specimen with values of thickness measured before and after the abrasion test. Loss in thickness of
10% WFS and control one. specimens was also confirmed by the calculation of average loss in thickness of the
This study was undertaken to explore the possibility waste foun- specimens using the following formula:
dry sand (WFS) as sand (fine aggregate) replacement in concrete,

Table 2
Chemical composition of waste foundry sand.

Constituent SiO2 Al2O3 TiO2 CaO MgO Fe2O3 Na2O K2O SO3 Mn3O4 SrO
Value (%) 83.8 0.81 0.22 1.42 0.86 5.39 0.87 1.14 0.21 0.047 –

Table 3
Physical properties of aggregates.

Property Sand (fine aggregate) Coarse aggregate Waste foundry sand

Specific gravity 2.68 2.7 2.18
Fineness modulus 2.64 6.35 1.89
SSD absorption (%) 1.12 1.14 0.42
 G. Singh, R. Siddique / Construction and Building Materials 28 (2012) 421–426 423

Table 4
Concrete mix proportions.

Mixture no. M-1 M-2 M-3 M-4 M-5

3
Cement (kg/m ) 450 450 450 450 450
Natural sand (kg/m3) 554 527 500 471 443
WFS (%) 0 5 10 15 20
WFS (kg/m3) 0 27 54 83 111
Coarse aggregate (12.5 mm) (kg/m3) 1139 1139 1139 1139 1139
W/C ratio 0.42 0.42 0.42 0.42 0.42
Water (kg/m3) 189 189 189 189 189
Super plasticizer(L/m3) 1.65 1.65 1.65 1.65 1.65
Slump (mm) 90 85 85 80 80
Air content (%) 4.2 4.4 4.3 4.4 4.5
Air temperature (°C) 27 27 28 27 27
Fresh concrete density (kg/m3) 2332 2334 2334 2334 2334
Concrete temperature (°C) 26 26 27 27 26

W1  W2 V1
T¼ 
W1 A

where T is average loss in thickness in mm; W1 is the initial weight of the specimen
in gram; W2 is the mass of the specimen after abrasion in gram; V1 is the initial vol-
ume of the specimens in mm3; A is the surface area of the specimens in mm2.

3. Results and discussion

Fig. 1. Compressive strength versus age.
3.1. Compressive strength

Compressive strength results of concrete mixtures are shown in

Fig. 1. Concrete mixtures containing WFS exhibited higher strength
than the control. Increasing the amounts of WFS from 0% to 20%
caused an increase in strength at all ages. At the age of 28 days,
the percentage increase in compressive strength with respect to
the control mixture was 8.3%, 12.8%, 17% and 13.5% for mixtures
containing 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% WFS respectively, whereas the in-
crease in strength was 7%, 14.3%, 16.3%, 19.5% and 15.5% at 91 days,
and 15%, 23.3%, 32.3%, 33.8% and 32.5% at 365 days. The increase in
strength due to the replacement of sand with WFS is attributed to
the densification of the paste structure due to the fine particle of
WFS. Compressive strength of concrete mixtures has increased at
all ages.
Beyond 15% WFS content, the lack of significant increase in
strength of the concrete mixtures could probably due to increase
in surface area of fine particles led to the reduction the water
cement gel in matrix, hence; binding process of coarse and fine
aggregate does not take place properly. Similar results were re-
ported by Siddique et al. [3], Etxeberria et al. [4], Guney et al. [5].
Siddique et al. [3] reported that with increase in WFS % compres-
sive strength increased by 8–19%. Etxeberria et al. [4] reported that
concrete made with green foundry sand and chemical foundry
sand obtained higher compressive strength than conventional con-
crete when the concrete is produced with high water–cement
ratio. Guney et al. [5] reported that the concrete with 10% WFS
showed almost similar strength. Fig. 2. Splitting tensile strength versus age.

3.2. Splitting tensile strength

WFS content beyond 15% does not contribute to increase in
Test results of splitting tensile strength of concrete mixtures strength due to increasing of fine particle in concrete. Siddique
with and without fly ash are shown in Fig. 2. Splitting tensile et al. [3], Etxeberria et al. [4], and Guney et al. [5] also reported
strength of concrete mixtures increased with the presence of similar results.
WFS at all ages. At 28 days of curing an increase in WFS content
led to an increase in tensile strength. Beyond 28 days the WFS mix- 3.3. Modulus of elasticity
tures exhibited similar strength and were substantially higher than
the control. Replacement of sand by 15% WFS, the percentage in- The modulus of elasticity of concrete mixtures containing WFS
crease in strength at 91 and 365 days ranged from 13.47% to is shown in Fig. 3. It can be seen that the modulus of elasticity of
18.20% compared with the control mixture. It was reduced by the concrete mixtures with 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% fine aggregate
2.4% with inclusion of 20% WFS. As stated earlier, this suggests that replacement was higher than the control at all ages. At 28 days,
424 G. Singh, R. Siddique / Construction and Building Materials 28 (2012) 421–426

Depth of Wear (mm)

Abrasion Time (minutes)

Fig. 5. Wear depth versus abrasion time at 91 days.

Fig. 3. Modulus of elasticity versus age.

Depth of Wear (mm)
Depth of Wear (mm)

Abrasion Time (minutes)

Fig. 6. Wear depth versus abrasion time at 365 days.

tively. The depth of wear increased with increase in abrasion time

Abrasion Time (Minutes) for all mixtures, and decreased with the increase in age of curing.
The depth of wear (abrasion resistance) at 60 min of testing is
Fig. 4. Wear depth versus abrasion time at 28 days.
shown in Fig. 7 for all concrete mixtures and at all curing ages.
For all concrete mixtures the depth of wear decreased with the
increase in curing time indicating better abrasion resistance. Also
the presence of increasing amounts of WFS enhanced the abrasion
concrete mixtures containing WFS had higher modulus of elasticity resistance in that the depth of wear decreased with the increase in
ranged from 1.67% to 6.35% than the control mixture (29.9 GPa). It WFS content. For example, at 28 days of curing and after 60 min of
can be seen that modulus of elasticity of all mixtures continued to abrasion, the depth of wear for mixtures containing 5%, 10%, 15%
increase with age (Fig. 3). At 91 days and 365 days, % increase in and 20% WFS was 2.6 mm, 2.5 mm, 2.28 mm and 2.4 mm, respec-
MOE was 6.02–12.37% and 8.02–14.03%, respectively. However, tively whereas the depth of wear for the control was 2.84 mm.
maximum value of modulus of elasticity occurred at WFS content Similar trend was observed at 91 and 365 days of curing. This
of 15% irrespective of the curing time. Siddique et al. [3] concluded showed that for a particular content of WFS, depth of wear
that modulus of elasticity increased by 5–12% at all age when decreased with increase in age, which is indicative of increased
inclusion of WFS content increased in concrete mixtures. Accord- abrasion resistance. The improved abrasion resistance in the pres-
ing to Guney et al. [5], concrete exhibited similar modulus of elas- ence of WFS could be due to dense matrix because WFS is fine sand
ticity as that of control concrete mixture at 10% replacement of and its particle size varies between 600 l and 150 l.
natural sand with WFS.
4. Relationship between strength properties and abrasion
3.4. Abrasion resistance resistance (depth of wear)

The variation of abrasion resistance with abrasion time for all Figs. 8–10 show the relationship between compressive strength,
mixtures at 28, 91, and 365 days are shown in Figs. 4–6 respec- splitting tensile strength, and modulus of elasticity respectively
 G. Singh, R. Siddique / Construction and Building Materials 28 (2012) 421–426 425
Depth of Wear (mm)

Waste foundry sand (%)

Fig. 7. Depth of wear at 60 min of abrasion.

Fig. 10. Relation between modulus of elasticity and depth of wear.

Table 5
Relationship between abrasion resistance and mechanical properties.

Depth of wear (y) versus compressive strength (x)

Equation Y = 0.0022x2  0.2862x + 10.789
Depth of wear (mm)

Correlation coefficient (R2) R2 = 0.9004

Depth of wear (y) versus splitting tensile strength (x)
Equation Y = 0.1675x2 + 0.2078x + 4.8448
Correlation coefficient (R2) R2 = 0.9103
Depth of wear (y) versus modulus of elasticity (x)
Equation Y = 0.0333x2 + 1.9032x  24.368
Correlation coefficient (R2) R2 = 0.9029

with that of depth of wear (abrasion resistance). In each of the fig-

ures, equation and correlation coefficient are shown. A polynomial
relationship in the form of y = ax2 + bx + c seems to best fit the data
Compressive strength (MPa) with R2 values of more than 0.90. The equations and correlation
coefficients are presented in Table 5 and Figs. 8–10. The high
Fig. 8. Relation between compressive strength and depth of wear. values of correlation coefficient indicates that depth of wear has
a strong relationship with strength properties (compressive and
splitting tensile) and well as modulus of elasticity. Generally, an in-
crease in strength and modulus of elasticity lead to an increase in
abrasion resistance of concrete.

5. Conclusions

The following conclusions can be drawn from this study:

Depth of wear (mm)

1. Replacement of fine aggregate with WFS enhanced the strength

properties of concrete with the increase in WFS content at all
ages. For example at 28-day, compressive strength of concrete
increased by 8.25–17%, splitting tensile strength by 3.55–
10.40%, and modulus of elasticity by 1.67–6.35%, depending
upon the WFS content, and further there was continuous
improvement in all these properties with the increase in curing
time.
2. Abrasion resistance of concrete mixtures increased with the
increase in WFS content as replacement for fine aggregate
regardless of the age of curing. For example, at the age of 28 days,
the depth of wear was 2.84 mm, 2.6 mm, 2.5 mm, 2.28 mm and
Splitting tensile strength (MPa)
2.40 mm for concrete containing 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% WFS,
Fig. 9. Relation between splitting tensile strength and depth of wear. respectively.
426 G. Singh, R. Siddique / Construction and Building Materials 28 (2012) 421–426

3. Abrasion resistance of concrete is strongly correlated with its [3] Siddique R, Schutter G, Noumowe A. Effect of used-foundry sand on the
mechanical properties of concrete. Constr Build Mater 2009;23:976–80.
compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and modulus
[4] Etxeberria M, Pacheco C, Meneses JM, Beerridi I. Properties of concrete using
of elasticity irrespective of waste foundry sand content and metallurgical industrial by-product as aggregate. Constr Build Mater
age. 2010;24:1594–600.
4. Results have indicated that concrete made with (up to 15%) WFS [5] Guney Y, Sari Y D, Yalcin M, Tuncan A, Donmez S. Re-usage of waste foundry
sand in high strength concrete. Waste Manage 2010;30:1705–13.
could suitable be used for making structural concretes, as well as [6] BIS: 1489(part 1):1991. Portland pozzolana cement specification, fly ash based,
for applications where abrasion is also important parameter. New Delhi, India: Bureau of Indian Standards
[7] BIS: 383-1970. Specifications for coarse and fine aggregates from natural
sources for concrete, Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi, India
[8] BIS: 10262-1982. Recommended guidelines for concrete mix design, Bureau of
Indian Standards, New Delhi, India
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ACI Spec. Publ. 2001(SP-200):733–48. of concrete, Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi, India
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