| Summary: | This study explored the possibility of using quarry dust as a replacement for natural river sand in concrete production. The behaviors of individual materials such as quarry dust (QD), ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS), pulverized fly ash (PFA) and silica fume (SF) were determined. Laboratory investigations were also conducted to evaluate the characterization of quarry dust and by-products materials in terms of microstructure, physical and chemical properties. Furthermore, mix design and the evaluation of the fresh and hardened properties of the ternary blend concrete were executed. Series of concrete were prepared with ternary blend proportion of OPC with sand (control), QD, GGBS, PFA and SF using water to cement ratio (w/c) of 0.30 and 0.20. Fresh properties of mixtures in terms of concrete slumps and density were studied. The hardened properties were examined based on mechanical strengths, deformation characteristics, durability properties and corrosion measurement. Finally, microstructural tests in terms of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning microscopy (FESEM), were concurrently conducted on control and ternary blended concrete to determine the interaction and effect of the ternary material that brings about the performance of the concrete. Results showed that QD and by-products materials affect mixture workability negatively. The inclusion of super plasticizer showed tremendous influence in increasing the workability and reduced this drawback. Blended concrete mixes at various replacement of GGBS, PFA and SF with quarry dust takes longer time to set within 3 to 4 hours whereas control mix is the fastest to set at an hour. Quarry dust blended with concrete indicates that the compressive strength gained between 5.3% to 7.3% compared to control concrete. Furthermore, the constituents of ternary blended it has the quality to be used as partial replacement cement.
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