ARTIFICIAL SAND PRODUCTION FOR GEOTECHNICAL USES

Artificial sand can be produced by crushing and screening of rock fragments or can be produCed by pelletization of powder fines. Powder wastes can be pelletized to form sand, gravel and aggregates. The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate potential use of artificial sand produced by a disc pelletizer for geotechnical applications. In order to define a material suitable for geotechnical uses, there are main parameters that are controlling the suitability of the fill material for geotechnical purposes. These parameters are production controllable parameters in pelletization process such as roundness, sphericity, specific gravity, water absorption, internal friction angle and crushing strength. Fly ash is pelletized into sand size and engineering properties are measured. The properties of artificial sand produced are compared with that of the Sakarya sand. The shear strength of pellet sand is comparable to that of Sakarya Sand. Under low confining stresses the pellet sand at loose state behaves like dense Sakarya sand.