The use of river sand for fine aggregate in UHPC and the effect of its particle size

For the purpose of improving the properties of UHPC as well as the economic efficiency in production of the material, Availability of river sands as fine aggregate instead of micro silica sand were investigated. Four different sizes of river sands were considered. Using river sand instead of micro silica sand increased the flowability, and decreased the yield stress and plastic viscosity in rheological properties, and the effect was higher with larger particle size of river sand. It was demonstrated by analyses based on the packing density. In the results of compressive strength and elastic modulus, even though river sand was not as good as micro silica sand, it could provide high strength of over 170 MPa and elastic modulus greater than 40 GPa. The difference in compressive strength depending on the size of river sand was explained with the concept of maximum paste thickness based on the packing density of aggregate. The flexural performance with river sand also presented relatively lower resistance than micro silica sand, and the reduction was greater with larger particle size of river sand. The flexural performance was proven to be also influenced by the difference in the fiber orientation distribution due to the size of river sand.