Shortage of river sand, has created a need for sand substitutes. Quarry dust from crushing of rocks, can be upto 25% of the aggregates produced. This is a significant amount, and it is important to find alternate uses for it. Here we discuss its use as a sand substitute in construction mortar.
A study done
in Tamilnadu came up with the following results.
Interestingly they found that quarry dust was superior to sand,
if one maintains the proper cement/aggregate ratio. Cement to fine
aggregate ratio (by volume) of less than 1:8 is not recommended.