See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/360258578

Salinity Removal and Feasibility Study on Sea Sand in Geopolymer Concrete

Conference Paper · December 2018

CITATIONS READ

0 1

3 authors:

Sudipta Sarker Md. Moinul Islam

Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology
3 PUBLICATIONS   1 CITATION    67 PUBLICATIONS   205 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Rakib Hasan
Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology
2 PUBLICATIONS   1 CITATION   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

SALINITY REMOVAL AND FEASIBILITY STUDY ON USING SEA SAND IN GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Md. Moinul Islam on 29 April 2022.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 4th International Conference on Advances in Civil Engineering 2018 (ICACE 2018)
19 –21 December 2018
CUET, Chittagong, Bangladesh
www.cuet.ac.bd

SALINITY REMOVAL AND FEASIBILITY STUDY ON SEA SAND IN

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE
S. Sarker1*,M. M. Islam1& R. Hasan1
1
Department of Civil Engineering, Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology,
Chittagong-4349, Bangladesh.
E-mail: [email protected]

*Corresponding Author

ABSTRACT
The rapid growth in the expansion of the construction work is leading to a depletion of natural resources
like river sand. This overuse should be balanced by introducing certain abundantly available other
natural materials which can replace the river sand. On the other hand, the production of every ton of
cement contributes to the production of one ton of CO2. The coal-based power plant produces a huge
amount of fly ash that creates disposal problems but at the same time, it can be utilized as a partial
substitution of cement. The alkali-activated fly ash concrete (Geopolymer Concrete) shows
considerable promise for application in the construction industry as an alternative to OPC. In this
experimental work, the chloride content of sea sand from different region of Chittagong & Cox’s Bazar
is determined and its removal techniques are discussed. The sea sand (washed and unwashed) has been
used as an alternative to river sand and strength properties of OPC and geopolymer concrete are studied.
The results show that washed sea sand gives satisfactory strength compared to river sand in case of
OPC. Unwashed sea sand affects the compressive strength in OPC concrete but gives similar results as
of washed sea sand in geopolymer concrete.

Keywords: Geopolymer Concrete, Fly Ash, River Sand, Sea Sand, Chloride content etc.

INTRODUCTION
The annual Cement consumption of Bangladesh was 27.1 million tons in 2017. This means that every
year more than 20 million tons sand and rock are used. River sand has been widely used in the
production of concrete in Bangladesh. However, river sand is expensive. Its cost of transportation to
construction sites and excessive erosion associated with excavation from the natural sources are
additional burdens. Large-scale depletion and over consumption of naturally occurring building
material have also indirectly created numerous environmental problems. Therefore, it is an immediate
requirement to seek an alternative to river sand in production of concrete. Available alternative fine
aggregate resources for producing concrete in Bangladesh are coastal sand or sea sand from different
coastal beach of Cox’s bazar and Chittagong side. Due to large scale availability, ease of extraction and
low cost, sea sand has the greatest potential to replace river sand as an alternative. The chloride ion
present in the sea sand makes its application potentially threatening to the durability of concrete
structures. Therefore, it is important to remove chloride ions from the sea-sand by washing them either
natural rainfall or artificial washing plants prior to use for the concrete. Besides the chloride problem,
consumers are much concerned about shell contents and textural suitability of sea sand. Therefore, sea
sand usage in Bangladesh is limited and only rarely used for concrete work. This study examines the
suitability of sea sand as an alternative fine aggregate for the river sand in concrete production by
reducing salt concentration within the permissible value & by increasing its strength with the help of
geopolymer concrete.

In Bangladesh, one of the major sources of material for power generation is coal and it’s by product- fly
ash- is an environmental threat to the public, if not disposed of properly. Therefore the safe disposal of

676
fly ash is still a major concern. So, the use of geopolymer concrete with fly ash as alumino-silicate
material not only helps to reduce the release of CO2 emission (by reducing the production of cement),
but also effectively disposes off fly ash, an industrial waste produced in large quantities.

The sea sand is available in abundant quantity but due to presence of salt and chloride it can’t be used as
fine aggregate in concrete as the salt and chlorides both affect the strength and durability of Portland
cement concrete. But in geopolymer concrete the case is different. In cement concrete the reaction is
hydration and in geopolymer concrete the reaction is polymerization. The nature of these two reactions
is not same. The work is carried out to study the effect of treated and untreated sea sand in cement
concrete as well as geopolymer concrete. The present research work also focuses on the influence of
geopolymer concrete using sea sand, both at ambient temperature and after exposure to elevated
temperatures, and makes a comparison of strength with the concrete made with river sand.

METHODOLOGY
Based on the literature study, the research was done in two phases:
Phase 1: Salinity Concentration of local sea sand and salt removal techniques:
Aggregate properties such as grading and dry density, along with determination of soluble chloride
content in sea sand were carried out. Leaching, Retained water washing test, simulated rain test and
influence of temperature were conducted to study the salinity removal characteristics (Samraj and
Nagarajan, 2013).
Phase 2: Strength development characteristics of concrete made with sea sand
100 mm cubical OPC Concrete and Geopolymer Concrete specimens were incorporated with Alkali
activator (Sodium Hydroxide flakes and Sodium Silicate solution) and Fly Ash as a partial replacement
of cement were cast. Washed and unwashed sea sand was used in this process. Some concrete cubes
were also cast using River sand for comparison. The 100 mm concrete cubes were cast for compressive
strength test at 1, 7, 28 and 90 days. Temperature curing was followed for geoploymer concrete whereas
for OPC cubes water curing was done (Shinde & Kadam, 2016).

MATERIALS
SEA SAND
Samples were collected from five different coastal regions of Chittagong – Guliakhali, Bashbaria,
Potenga and Parki sea beach and also from Kolatoli point, Cox’s Bazar. Sample was collected in wet
state and it was dried in Oven before determining the parameters.

FLY ASH
Fly ash was obtained from Premier Cement Mills limited, Chittagong, Bangladesh. From this Table 1 it
could be observed that, the fly ash has low calcium content. In this experiment 0%, 20%, 40%, 60% of
fly ash is used as a partial replacement of cement in geopolymer concrete cube preparation.

Table 1: Chemical composition of Fly ash (Mass %)

SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 CaO Na2O TiO2 MgO Mn2O3 SO3 Loss of ignition
60.78 28.36 4.57 2.1 0.04 1.82 0.83 0.04 0.40 1.06

ALKALINE ACTIVATORS
In geopolymer concrete, to activate the fly ash, a combination of sodium hydroxide solution and sodium
silicate solution was chosen as the alkaline activator. NaOH pellets of 98% purity and the Na2SiO3
solution had 34.64% SiO2, 16.27% Na2O, and 49.09% water. Sodium silicate relative density was
2.13gm/cm3. The sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution was prepared by dissolving either the flakes or
the pellets in water. In this experiment 35% of alkaline activators with respect to binder was used.

CEMENT
The properties of cement used in this experiment are given in Table 2.
Table 2: Physical properties and Chemical composition of cement
Blaine's Specific Normal Specific Setting Time (min) 28 days Compressive
surface (cm2/gm) Consistency gravity (a) Initial (b) Final Strength (MPa)

677
 3500 26% 3.15 70 175 30.4

CaO SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3

64% 21% 6% 3.50%

AGGREGATES
Coarse aggregate with nominal sizes of 12.5 mm were used. Fine aggregates were used in the form of
River sand from Fatikchori and Sea sand from Kolatoli point. Aggregates were prepared in
saturated-surface-dry (SSD) condition to avoid the absorption of the alkaline solution by the aggregates
which reduce the polymerization of the fly ash. Table 3 shows the physical properties of aggregates

Table 3: Physical properties of aggregates

Properties Coarse Aggregate Fine Aggregate (River sand) Fine Aggregate (Sea sand)
Specific Gravity 2.59 2.35 2.56
Unit Weight 1560 kg/m3 1580 kg/m3 1612kg/m3
Fineness Modulus 6.77 2.57 1.17

SOLUBLE CHLORIDE CONCENTRATION DETERMINATION

The amount of chlorides present in the sea sand was determined using Silver Nitrate method
(Karthikeyan and Nagarajan, 2017). First 50 grams samples of each location were immersed in 100 mL
water separately. Then 25 mL solutions for each sample were used to titrate with 0.0141N Silver
Nitrate solution. Silver Nitrate reacts with chloride ions to form Silver Chloride. The completion of
reaction was indicated by the red colour produced by the reaction of Silver Nitrate with Potassium
chromate solution which was added as an indicator. The reduction of soluble Chloride concentration of
sand after washing was also determined by the same method. Fig.1 displays the Experimental Setup for
determination of soluble chloride in sand

Fig.1: Experimental Setup for determination of Soluble Chloride in sand

SOLUBLE CHLORIDE REMOVAL TECHNIQUE

LEACHING TECHNIQUE
After determining the initial chloride concentration of different samples collected from various sources,
(Parki, Potenga, Cox’s Bazar-Kolatoli point), sand samples having higher Chloride concentration were
taken for Chloride removal. 500 grams sample of each source were taken in separate 5L volume
container filled with normal water. They were retained in a large tank having 140 L capacity. The whole
tank was filled with water.

SIMULATED RAIN TECHNIQUE

Fresh water was allowed to pass through the sand which leached out water soluble Chloride and
Chloride content was measured after every 30 minutes time intervals. In this process, sample was kept
in a tank of space area 63cm X 63cm. It was washed with water having a controlled flow of 1.60cm3/hr
that resembles with the normal rainfall intensity in Bangladesh during Monsoon. Samples were
collected after 30 minutes time interval up to 2 hours simulated rain and Chloride concentration was
measured by Silver Nitrate Method. Cox’s Bazar Kolatoli Point sand has the highest soluble Chloride
concentration and also the highest Chloride removal rate in Leaching technique. So Simulated rain
washing was only done for the sand collected from Cox’s Bazar Kolatoli Point.

678
RETAINED WASHING TECHNIQUE
Sand collected from Cox’s Bazar Kolatoli point was immersed in full depth of water in a tank of 140L
capacity. Samples were collected at each day interval and continued for 3 days.

BOILED WATER WASHING TECHNIQUE

5L water was added to 500 grams untreated sand in a pan. Solubility is a property that is affected by
temperature, so more salt dissolves in hot water than cold water. The water was heated until the salt
present in sand dissolved. Then salt water was poured into a separate container and Chloride
concentration of sand was measured by Silver Nitrate Method.

PREPARATION OF ALKALI SOLUTIONS

The NaOH solution was first prepared at the required molarity of 12M. For this, 12X40=480 grams
Sodium Hydroxide flakes are dissolved in 1 litre water. The exothermic reaction was continued for
some time. 30 minutes before casting, sodium silicate was added and thoroughly mixed.

CASTING & CURING OF GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE SPECIMENS

Coarse and fine aggregates in saturated surface dry condition were well mixed with required percentage
of fly ash and cement in a pan mixture. Premixed alkaline activator solution was then added gradually in
the mixer. Mixing was continued for further 4-6 minutes. All geopolymer concrete specimens were cast
using standard molds of 100 mm cubical shpae. The geopolymer concrete was compacted in 3 layers
with the help of a tamping rod. The fresh fly ash-based geopolymer concrete was dark in color and
shiny in appearance. Samples were demolded 72 hours after casting. Three different curing approaches
are adopted for the samples (Hardjito et al., 2004; Wallah and Rangan, 2006). Some are left in 28-35°C
for air curing until testing and some are kept under water for water curing. Dry air curing at elevated
temperature of 60°C for one day was adopted for the rest of the sample

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

SALINITY REMOVAL
The result of Chloride ion removal varies with collected sand location. Table 4 shows the initial
Chloride ion concentration was maximum (1320 ppm) for raw sand collected from Cox’s Bazar-
Kolatoli point. Table 5 shows the highest Chloride ion removal rate and lowest concentration of
Chloride ion after treatment (29 ppm) for this sand. This sand was used for the following salinity
removal techniques.

Table 4: Salinity concentration of sand collected from different coastal region

Source Parki Guliakhali Potenga Bashbaria Cox’s Bazar (Kolatoli)
Conc. In ppm 610 478 726 99 1320

Table 5: 1st, 2nd & 3rd Leaching data of 500gm sand sample (using Normal water):
Source Raw sample conc. in ppm 1st wash (4 days) 2nd wash(8 days) 3rdwash (22days)
Parki 610 87 76 34
Potenga 726 75 61 40
Cox’s Bazar 1320 66 52 29

In leaching technique, 500 grams samples were taken in circular 5L oil container separately. Retained
water washing result was analogous to Leaching technique using normal water. But the tank used in
retained water washing had a surface area almost 30 times greater than that of circular oil container used
in leaching technique. So with the increase of surface area of washing, salinity removal at a high rate
was achieved. This is because of larger surface area coming in contact with water in retained water
washing technique. For simulated rain technique, a 2 hours continuous rainfall in Monsoon shows
better salinity removal than all other retained washing processes. Because of continuously washing
away the water, the solubility of Chloride ion was always less than its solubility limit in water. As a

679
result, more Chloride ion got dissolved in continuous washing than retained water washing process. In
endothermic reaction, increasing temperature increases the solubility of the solute. Therefore, lowest of
all Chloride ion concentration has been achieved only after 3 times washing of sea sand sample with
boiled water. A maximum 99% chloride ion has been removed in this process. Table 6 shows the final
chloride ion content for various methods.
70

Chloride ion concentration

66
60 52 Leaching
61 using
50 normal
in ppm 37
40 water
29
30 20 Retained
20 water
10 washing
0
1st wash 2nd wash 3rd wash
Fig. 2: Influence of surface area in Chloride ion removal.

Table 6: Final Chloride ion content of 500 grams sand sample

Method Leaching Retained water washing Simulated rain washing Boiled water washing
Final Cl- conc. in ppm 29 20 15 13

COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH
Results of compressive strength of cement concrete and geopolymer concrete are presented in Table 7,
and the graphical variation is shown in following Fig.3, 4 and 5

Table 7: Details of Mix and Compressive Strength

Notation Types of Fly Ash 28 days Comp. Types of curing 1 day Comp.
curing (%) Strength (MPa) Strength (MPa)
B1RSF00(OPC) Water -- 31.2
B2TSSF00(OPC) Water -- 27.2
B3USSF00(OPC) Water -- 25.8
B4TSSF20(GP) Ambient temp. 20 26.4 Temp. curing at 60°C 25.9
B5TSSF40(GP) Ambient temp. 40 27.0 Temp. curing at 60°C 26.8
B6TSSF60(GP) Ambient temp. 60 26.6 Temp. curing at 60°C 29.8
B7USSF20(GP) Ambient temp. 20 25.1 Temp. curing at 60°C 24.5
B8USSF40(GP) Ambient temp. 40 26.4 Temp. curing at 60°C 26.3
B9USSF60(GP) Ambient temp. 60 26.5 Temp. curing at 60°C 29.1

Fig. 3: Comparison of OPC concrete compressive strength results in Water curing using river sand,
treated and untreated sea sand.

Ordinary Portland Cement concrete strength using river sand (RS) is always greater than the strength
using treated (TSS) and untreated sea sand (USS). The lowest compressive strength is seen for OPC

680
concrete using untreated sea sand and the most important fact is that, as time goes on, the difference in
strength between treated and untreated sea sand becomes more and more.

From Table 7, it can be said that with the increase of Fly ash content from 40 to 60%, 1 day elevated
temperature curing strength of geopolymer cube has become greater than 28 days ambient temperature
curing strength for both Treated (B6TSSF60) and untreated sand geopolymer concrete (B9USSF60).
For other batches, with lower Fly ash content 28 days ambient temperature curing strength is quite
similar to 1 day elevated temperature curing strength.

Variation of strength between Ordinary Portland Cement and Ambient temperature cured Geopolymer
Concrete having varying percentage of Fly ash (20%, 40% and 60%) are shown in Fig.4 and in Fig.5.
For 20% Fly ash geopolymer concrete, the early strength is a little smaller than that of Ordinary
Portland Cement concrete but greater than 40 and 60% Fly ash geopolymer concrete. Though early
strength was smallest, 90 days strength is the greatest for 60% Fly ash geopolymer concrete. The
difference in 90 days strength between 20% Fly ash containing geopolymer concrete with treated sea
sand (B4TSSF20) and OPC with treated sand (B2TSSF00) is 2.9 MPa. This difference has increased to
6.8 MPa when 60% Fly ash containing geopolymer concrete is used. So, with the increase of Fly ash
content, the strength becomes higher and higher than the Ordinary Portland Cement concrete in the long
run.

Fig. 4: Comparison of Compressive strength of OPC and Geopolymer Concrete with 20, 40 & 60% FA

Fig.5: Comparison between 90 days compressive strength results

For OPC concrete specimens made from treated sand obtained by washing showed better performance
than concrete specimens using untreated sea sand. The strength of OPC concrete with river sand

681
 (B1RSF00) is 4.8 MPa higher than that with Treated sea sand (B2TSSF00).

This difference has increased to 9.3 MPa when unwashed sea sand is used (B3USSF00). So, washing
sea sand before using is recommended to improve the strength of OPC concrete. The difference in
variation of strength using Treated and Untreated sea sand gets reduced with increasing Fly ash content
in geopolymer concrete. And the most important observation is that, for 60% fly ash content untreated
sea sand showed better strength performance than the treated one. Even 90 days treated sea sand
contained OPC concrete (B2TSSF00) strength is smaller than untreated sea sand contained geopolymer
concrete. If only strength is considered, geopolymer concrete is a better approach than treated sea sand
containing OPC concrete (Ref. Fig.5)

CONCLUSIONS
Based on the variables considered, experimental techniques and results, the conclusions can be
summarized as follows:
(i) The chloride ion removal rate depends on the collected sea sand source. Removal rate depends
largely on the surface area of tank and not much affected by retention period. Larger surface area shows
better removal rate even having lower retain period. A maximum 99% chloride ion was removed by
boiled water washing techniques.
(ii) Treated sea sand shows better strength performance than untreated sea sand in OPC concrete. With
the increase of curing period and Fly ash percentage, strength increment rate for geopolymer concrete is
higher than OPC.
(iii) Considering strength only, geopolymer concrete shows better performance than treated sea sand in
OPC concrete.
(iv)Chloride ion removal rate using continuous washing rain is satisfactory and also becomes economic
if rain water can be utilized. Stockpiling of sea sand in an open space before Monsoon is an effective
process for salinity removal (Ratnayake et al., 2014). An onshore washing plant can be established, for
large scale production.
(v) The chloride content can be removed by continuous washing combined with the use of warm water
to make de- salting more effective.

REFERENCES
Hardjito, D; Wallah, SE; Sumajouw, MJ and Rangan, BV. 2004. The Compressive Strength of Fly Ash
Based Geopolymer Concrete. Research Gate.
Karthikeyan, M and Nagarajan V. 2017. Chloride Analysis of Sea Sand for making Concrete. Springer.
Ratnayake, NP; Puswewala, UGA; Chaminda, SP; Ekanayaka, EMTM and Jayawardene, MN.
Evaluation of the Potential of Sea Sand as an Alternative to River Sand for Concrete Production in Sri
Lanka, Journal of Geological Society of Sri Lanka, 16: 109-117.
Samraj, P and Nagarajan, V. 2013. Sea Sand as Fine Aggregate for Concrete Production, National
Symposium for Recent Trends in Civil Engineering, P.S.G college of Technology, Coimbatore, India.
Shinde, BH and Kadam, DKN. 2016. Strength Properties of Fly Ash Based Geopolymer Concrete with
Sea Sand. American Journal of Engineering Research (AJER), 5(7): 129-132.
Wallah, SE and Rangan, BV. 2006. Low-Calcium Fly Ash-Based Geopolymer Concrete: Long-Term
Properties. Research Report GC 2, Faculty of Engineering, Curtin University of Technology,
Perth, Australia.

682

View publication stats