The crushing of rocks in gravel pits

The crushing of rocks in gravel pits generates enormous amounts of waste consisting of sands with a high percentage of fines without use. Their storage and abundance in nature create a crucial environmental problem. Several researchers have tried to use by-products as a substitute for natural sand (NS) in mortar and concrete. This work concerns the exploitation of local industrial waste and its use in the formulation of concrete and mortars. The objective of this study is to analyze the combined effect of crushing sand(CS); natural pozzolan(NP) and superplasticizer(SP); on the mortar’s rheological properties. The evaluation focuses on the workability, water absorption, mechanical strength, and rheological properties. The results obtained show that the combined effect (CS-NP-SP) greatly affects the mortar properties. Their presence increases the mechanical strength, decreases the rheological parameters (yield stress and the plastic viscosity), and reduces the water absorption coefficient.