Durability Phenomenon in Manufactured Sand Concrete: Effects of Zinc Oxide and Alcofine on Behaviour

Despite several studies focusing on producing sustainable concrete with nonconventional materials, there are short-term and long-term lapses in behavior of some of the concretes. This study, with a main focus on durability performance, explores strength and behavior of manufactured sand concrete containing alcofine and zinc oxide in severe environmental conditions. Alcofine and zinc oxide were added to the mixture at 10% and 2% by weight of cement, respectively. Manufactured Sand was used as a partial replacement for river sand at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. The compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength of the concrete were determined after standard curing regimes. Durability tests, entailing exposure of concrete to acid attack, sea water, water absorption, sulphate attack, water permeability and rapid chloride penetration, were also performed. The results show that mixture made with 50% manufactured sand 10 %Alccofine and 0.5% Zinc oxide replacement, demonstrated better durability.

Automated summary

The study focuses on the durability performance of manufactured sand concrete containing Alcofine and zinc oxide in severe environmental conditions, finding that the mixture made with 50% manufactured sand, 10% Alcofine, and 0.5% Zinc oxide replacement demonstrated better durability.