Suitability of Garnet to Grading and Fineness Modulus as Bedding Sand Layer in Concrete Block Pavement

Abstract

Currently, highway and road construction use river sand as part of
pavement construction. Due to rapid development, the demand for
common sand increased and was heavily used in construction. Building
constructions also require sand as the material to produce concrete.
This is the major factor in increasing the demand for river sand and can
increase the price of river sand. There are alternative suggestions by
many researchers that use waste materials to replace ordinary sand
completely or partially in construction. Therefore, using waste
materials such as garnet to replace river sand either partially or fully
will conserve our environment and more sustainable solutions.
Concrete block pavement (CBP) uses river sand as its bedding sand
layer. Therefore, there is the chance of garnet either in part or in full
to replace river sand in the pavement constructions. The objective of
the study was to determine the effect on the grading curve and the
fineness modulus when the various contents of the sand-garnet ratio
were used as the pavement-bedding layer. Sieve analysis was
conducted to meet the grading requirements according to BS 882 while
ASTM C33 was used as the reference in terms of modulus of fineness.
The research found that only samples of type 9S1G and 8S2G meet the
requirements as a material for the application of pavement base layer
to replace part of the sand. In addition, the 9S1G and 8S2G type
samples meet ASTM C33, which recommends that the fineness
modulus value must be from 2.30 to 3.10 i.e., the fineness modulus
value for 9S1G and 8S2G type sample is 2.77 and 2.81 respectively.
Therefore, this research suggests that the percentage of garnet
replacement for pavement bedding sand layer application is up to 20%.