Laboratory Evaluation of Utilizing Waste Heavy Clay and Foundry Sand Blends as Construction Materials

Abstract

This paper presents a study in which the feasibility of utilizing two industrial wastes, a heavy clay material from the automotive industry and a waste foundry sand from the metallurgical industry, as construction materials was evaluated through laboratory experiments. The laboratory study blended two industrial wastes at different proportions and stabilized the blend with varying amounts of cement. The engineering properties of the blends were evaluated through the Atterberg limits, Proctor compaction test, direct shear, and unconfined compressive strength tests. The results from this study indicate that blending foundry sand into waste heavy clay significantly reduced its plasticity and cohesion and hence made it possible to be further stabilized with cement. In addition, it is observed that the blended materials had other improved properties such as increased maximum dry unit weight, friction angle, and compressive strength. However, the increase in compaction and strength properties became less significant with the increase of foundry sand content. An optimum blending ratio was recommended through this laboratory study.