




































 

 

ISSN : 2693 6356 

2019 | Vol 2 | Issue 2 

 

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF QUARRY DUST AS A 

SUBSTITUTE FOR CEMENT 

1
Y.Sombabu, 

2
SK. Baji baba, 

3
K.Ashok, 

4
M.Rajesh, & 

5
 V.Mariya Babu 

1 Assistant Professor, 2,3,4 & 5 IV year Students, Civil Engineering Department, Sree Vahini 

Institute of Science and Technology, Tiruvuru 

 

 

ABSTRACT 

Twenty-five percent of the stone crusher unit's final output is quarry dust, a byproduct of the 

crushing process. The environmental effects of quarry dust discharged directly into the 

environment are unknown. Quarry dust may be reused to create other goods or used into 

concrete as an additive to make better use of scarce materials and lessen its negative effects 

on the environment and on people. In this case, we are investigating the strength property of 

concrete by using quarry dust as a partial substitute for cement. 

In this experiment, fine quarry dust is employed as a cement substitute. The use of quarry 

dust as a cement substitute is investigated in this study. For an M30 grade mix, quarry dust 

may substitute cement at a weight ratio of 0%, 5%, 15%, 25%, and 35%. Compressive 

strength, split tensile strength, and flexural strength experiments were conducted on hardened 

concrete at 7, 14, and 28 days, respectively, while workability tests were conducted on the 

fresh qualities of concrete. In an effort to conserve the environment by lowering cement use, 

quarry dust was tested as a potential cement alternative. 

Keywords: Compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength, workability, and 

cement/quarry dust/workability all factor in. 

 

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION 

GENERAL: 

Quarry dust is a byproduct of the 

quarrying industry. As an alternative to 

cement, it may be utilized as an efficient 

filler material. In order to keep up with the 

demands of globalization, India is 

investing heavily in the development of its 

infrastructure, particularly its express 

roads, power projects, industrial projects, 

etc. Concrete is used in the construction of 

many different types of constructions. 

In India, many different kinds of 

manufacturing produce by-products and 

garbage. The disposal of trash has 

regional environmental impacts. 

Therefore, there is considerable potential 

in the building sector to recycle these 

waste materials. Many studies have shown 

that by including waste items like Quarry 

dust into the mix, concrete may obtain 

superior qualities to those of regular 

concrete. 

This research thus takes quarry dust to test 

its viability as a Cement substitute in 

concrete production. Crushing aggregates 

results in a by-product known as quarry 

dust, which has a surprisingly wide range 

of potential uses in the building industry. 

It is an alternative to quarry dust because 

of its comparable physical qualities to 

cement. It is the byproduct of Aggregates 

production. The disposal of this trash is a 

major contributor to pollution. Only in the 

building industry may waste products like 



 

 

Quarry dust be used without risk. Using it 

as a substitute material in concrete reduces 

pollutants, solves the shortage of space, 

and lowers the price of concrete. 

 

 

 

 

 

1.0 BACK GROUND OF QUARRY 

DUST: 

Quarry dust is a byproduct of the 

crushing process which is a concentrated 

material to use as aggregates for 

concreting purpose, especially as fine 

aggregates. In quarrying 

activities, the rock has been crushed into 

various sizes; during the process the dust 

generated is called quarry dust and it is 

formed as waste. 

So, it becomes as a useless 

material and also results in air pollution. 

Therefore, quarry dust should be used in 

construction works, which will reduce 

the cost of construction and the 

construction material would be saved 

and the natural resources can be used 

properly. Most of the developing 

countries are under pressure to replace 

Cementin concrete by an alternate 

material also to some extent or totally 

without compromising the quality of 

concrete. Quarry dust has been used for 

different activities in the construction 

industry, such as building materials, road 

development materials, aggregates, 

bricks, and tiles. 

 

1.1 PRODUCTION OF QUARRY 

DUST 

Quarry dust is a byproduct of the 

crushing process which is a concentrated 

material to use as aggregates for 

concreting purpose, especially as fine 

aggregates. In quarrying activities, the 

rock has been crushed into various sizes; 

during the process the dust generated is 

called quarry dust and it is formed as 

waste. 

The amount of industrial 

waste is increasing year by year. 

Industrial waste is defined as waste 

generated by Manufacturing or industrial 

processes. One types of industrial waste 

is quarry dust. During the production of 

aggregates through the crushing process 

of rocks in rubble crusher units, quarry 

dust is obtained as a by-product. Quarry 

dust waste has been used for different 

activities in the construction industry, 

such as road construction and building 

materials. Quarry dust waste act as 

lightweight aggregates, bricks, tiles, and 

autoclave blocks. Quarry dust waste also 

a waste material that is generated from 

the stone crushing industry which is 

abundantly available to the extent of 200 

million tons per annum. This will lead to 

landfill disposal problems, health and 

environmental pollution. In addition, 

environmental pollution caused by 

quarry dust waste and heavy metals has 

been a problem for many years in our 

world Dust from quarrying has been 

reported to stall the growth and 

flowering of crops 

 

1.4. WHY REPLACING? 

Construction industries of 

developing countries are in stress to 

replace cement in concrete by an 

alternate material either partially or 

completely without compromising the 

quality of concrete. On the other hand, 

the advantages of utilization of by-

products obtained as waste materials are 

pronounced in the aspects of reduction in 

environmental load & waste 

management cost, reduction of 

production cost as well as augmenting 

the quality of concrete. 

By reducing cement consumption 

environment can be protected. An 

attempt was made to partially replace the 

cement with waste material quarry dust 

with an aim not to lose the strength Cr 

from original concrete mix. From the 

observations of test results, cement can 

be replaced with 25% of quarry dust in 

concrete. The physical and mechanical 

properties of materials used in concrete 

were investigated. For each replacement 

6 cubes were cast for measuring 7days 

and 28days compressive strength. 

 

1.5 USE OF QUARRY DUST IN 



 

 

CEMENT: 

Since the main composition of 

Quarry dust is vitreous FeSio3, it has low 

melting point and could reduce the 

calcination temperature for cement 

clinker. Thus, the use of Quarry dust to 

replace iron powder as iron adjusting 

material Ciliates cement production and 

reduces or eliminates the need of 

mineralizes has been pointed out by 

(Huang 2001). The performance testing 

results indicated that cement produced 

by using Quarry dust performed even 

better than using iron powder. Quarry 

dust was used as a Portland cement 

replacement together with 1.5% of 

hydrated lime as an activator to 

pozzolanic reaction. Result indicated a 

significant increase in the compressive 

strength. 

 

1.6 ADVANTAGES OF QUARRY 

DUST: 

• Reduces the construction cost 

due to saving in material cost. 

• Reduces the heat of hydration. 

• Refinement of pore pressure. 

• Reduces permeability. 

• Reduces the demand for 

primary natural resources. 

• Reduces the environmental 

impact due to quarrying and 

aggregate mining. 

• Found naturally so easy to 

extract. 

• Quarry dust is a natural 

product, available and low 

cost. 

•  

1.7 NEED FOR PRESENT 

INVESTIGATION: 

Though a lot of research is 

focused in the last decade on use of 

various admixtures in producing 

concrete, very little information is 

available on quarry dust concrete. Thus, 

this new admixture has lot of potential 

for use in concrete. Hence, there is need 

to study the strength and workability 

characteristics of quarry dust as 

admixture in concrete. 

A material other than water, 

aggregates, or cement that is used as 

ingredient of concrete or mortar to 

control setting and early hardening, 

workability, or to provide additional 

cementing properties. Over decades, 

attempts have been made to obtain 

concrete with certain desired 

characteristics such as high compressive 

strength, high workability, and high 

performance and durability parameters to 

meet the requirement of complexity of 

modern structures. 

 

1.9 OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH 

WORK 

In this work, an extensive study using 

Quarry dust has been carried out to 

investigate the following, 

1. To find the optimum proportion 

of Quarry dust that can be gained 

maximum strength and that 

proportion will be used as a 

replacement substitute material 

for Cement in concrete. 

2. To debrief the physical and 

chemical properties by use of 

Quarry dust for Cement in 

concrete specimens. 

3. To inspect the performance of 

concrete made with Quarry dust 

as replacement of fine aggregate. 

4. To evaluate the compressive, 

tensile and flexural strength of 

concrete by using Quarry dust in 

concrete specimens. 

 

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 

Syed Yaqub Abbas,V.C.Agarwal 

(2015) they studied by taking M25 grade 

concrete using stone dust as partial 

replacement at different mix proportions 

like 10%,20%,30%,40%,50%,60% to the 

total weight of fine aggregate. They got 

the maximum compressive strength at 

50% replacement. The aim of their 

project is to study the strength 

parameters of concrete 

Mr. Lokesh Kumar and Prof. Gautam 

Bhadoriya (2015) these authors 

explained that, with 25% cement 

replacement with fly ash and 40% fine 

aggregate replacement with stone dust 

gives the maximum compressive strength 



 

 

of concrete. 

Sandeep Kumar Singh, Vikas Sri 

Vastava (2014) in their study, they taken 

M25 grade concrete using stone dust as 

partial replacement at different mix 

proportions like 20%, 30%, 40% and 

50% to the total weight of fine aggregate. 

They got the maximum compressive 



 

 

strength at 40% replacement. 

Pandyala Chanakya, Diptikar Behr. 

Metakaolin is a highly pozzolanic 

material. The present study investigates 

the effects of metakaolin and super 

plasticizer on strength properties of M-

30 grade concrete. The replacement 

levels of cement by metakaolin are 

selected as 4%, 8%, 12%, 16%, and 

20%. For constant w/c material ratio of 

0.43. In this study show that 12 % 

replacement of cement by metakaolin 

gives higher strength. 

Gokhan Guahan, Ridwan Aslaner. In 

this paper fly ash was used as the raw 

material in the preparation of 

geopolymer paste and metakaolin was 

used as a substitution material in 

different ratio. Metakaolin material was 

made of kaolin clay calcined at a 

temperature of 

1000 °C and at a final temperature for 1h 

in a laboratory type electric arc furnace. 

The fly ash in the prepared mixture was 

substituted by metakaolin ranging from 

10-40%. As a result, ideal curing 

temperature and curing time were 

decided to be 60 °C and 2h for the 

production of the geopolymer paste. It 

was also determined that the 

compressive strength valve of sample 

subjected to curing reached up to 25.10 

Map and that a 40%. 

Vikas Srivastava. Investigated the 

suitability of silica fume and metakaolin 

combination in production of concrete. 

The optimum combined does of silica 

fume and metakaolin were found out as 

6%, and 15% (by wt.) respectively. The 

28th day compressive strength of 

concrete generally increased with the 

metakaolin content for at all the silica 

fume content. 



 

 

 

3.0 TESTING FOR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERIALS 

3.1 TESTS ON CEMENT 

S.NO NAME OF THE TEST RESULT 

1 % of Weight of Cement Retained on the Sieve 2.88% 

2 Standard consistency of cement 27 

3 Specific gravity of cement 3.11 

4 Initial setting time (min) 35 min 

5 Final setting time (min) 420min 

Table 3.1 Tests on cement 

3.2 TESTS ON QUARRY DUST 

S.NO NAME OF THE TEST RESULT 

1 % of Weight of Quarry Dust Retained on the Sieve 2% 

2 Specific gravity of Quarry Dust 2.51 

Table 3.2 Tests on Quarry dust 

3.3 TESTS ON FINE AGGREGATES 

S.NO NAME OF THE TEST RESULT 

1 Moisture content 2.037 

2 Fineness Modulus 2.66% 

3 Grading Zone II 

4 Specific gravity 2.67 

5 % of Water Absorption 2.8% 

6 % of bulking 2.23% 

Table 3.3 Tests on Fine aggregate 

3.4 COARSE AGGREGATES 

S.NO NAME OF THE TEST RESULT 

1 Specific gravity of given coarse aggregates 2.637 

2 Water Absorption of given coarse aggregates 3.423 

Table 3.4 Tests on Coarse aggregate 

 

4.0 MIX DESIGN 

Cement Fine aggregate Coarse aggregate Water Cement ratio 

442 kg/ m³ 566 kg/ m³ 1304 kg/ m³ 
0.40 

1 1.28 1.93 

Table: 4.1. Mix Design 

 

 

5.0 METHODOLOGY 

 

S. 

No 

 

% Of Quarry Dust 

+ % of Cement 

 

Compressive Strength of 

Concrete 

 

Split Tensile 

Strength of 

Concrete 

 

Flexural 

Strength of 

Concrete 

  7 
days 

14 
days 

28 
days 

7 
days 

28 
days 

7 
days 

28 
days 

1 0% QD + 100% C 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 

2 05% QD + 95% C 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 

3 15% QD +85% C 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 

4 25% QD + 75% C 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 

5 35% QD + 65% C 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 



 

 

Total 45 Cubes 30 Cylinders 30 Beams 

Table 5.1: Specimens Required for The Study 

6.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 

6.1 WORKABILITY OF CONCRETE: 

S. No % Of Quarry Dust + % of Cement Mix Names Slump in mm 

1 0% QD + 100% C Mix 1 58 

2 05% QD + 95% C Mix 2 52 

3 15% QD +85% C Mix 3 54 

4 25% QD + 75% C Mix 4 49 

5 35% QD + 65% C Mix 5 51 

Table 6.2: Slump cone test results 

 

 

 

Graph 6.1: Slump cone test results 

6.1.2 Compaction factor test 

S.No % Of Quarry Dust + 
% of Cement 

Mix Names Compaction Factor 

1 0% QD + 100% C Mix 1 0.82 

2 05% QD + 95% C Mix 2 0.84 

3 15% QD +85% C Mix 3 0.81 

4 25% QD + 75% C Mix 4 0.79 

5 35% QD + 65% C Mix 5 0.86 

Table 6.3: Compaction Factor test results 
 

Slump in mm 

58 

54 
52 

51 
49 

MIX 1 MIX 2 MIX 3 MIX 4 MIX 5 

Slump in mm 



 

 

 

Graph 6.2: Compaction Factor test results 

 

6.2 TESTS TO BE CONDUCTED ON CONCRETE 

6.2.1 COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF CONCRETE 

S.No % Of Quarry Dust + 

% of Cement 

Mix Names Compressive strength in MPa 

7 Days 14 Days 28 Days 

1 0% QD + 100% C Mix 1 26.20 33.81 38.72 

2 05% QD + 95% C Mix 2 26.62 33.54 39.24 

3 15% QD +85% C Mix 3 28.21 36.51 42.67 

4 25% QD + 75% C Mix 4 29.25 37.01 44.21 

5 35% QD + 65% C Mix 5 23.85 31.26 36.27 

Table 6.4: Compressive Strength test results 
 

Compaction Factor Test 

0.88 

0.86 

0.84 

0.82 

0.8 

0.78 

0.76 

0.74 

Mix 1 Mix 2 Mix 3 Mix 4 Mix 5 

Compaction Factor Test 



 

 

 
Graph 6.3: Compressive Strength test results 

 

 

 

6.2.2 SPLIT TENSILE STRENGTH OF CONCRETE 
S.No % Of Quarry Dust + % 

of Cement 
Mix Names Split Tensile strength in MPa 

7 Days 28 Days 

1 0% QD + 100% C Mix 1 1.72 4.52 

2 05% QD + 95% C Mix 2 1.84 5.06 

3 15% QD +85% C Mix 3 2.72 5.53 

4 25% QD + 75% C Mix 4 2.33 4.92 

5 35% QD + 65% C Mix 5 2.15 3.35 

Table 6.5: Split Tensile Strength test results 
 

31.26 

26.2 26.62 
28.21 

23.85 

MIX 1 MIX 2 MIX 3 MIX 4 MIX 5 

29.25 

33.54 33.81 
36.27 37.01 36.51 

39.24 38.72 

44.21 
42.67 

Compressive Strength Result (N/mm2) 

7 Days 14 Days 28 Days 



 

 

 
Graph 6.4: Split Tensile Strength test results 

 

 

6.2.3 FLEXURAL STRENGTH OF CONCRETE 

 

 

 

S.No % Of Quarry Dust + % of 

Cement 

Mix Names Flexural strength in MPa 

7 Days 28 Days 

1 0% QD + 100% C Mix 1 1.12 2.32 

2 05% QD + 95% C Mix 2 1.32 2.76 

3 15% QD +85% C Mix 3 1.41 3.24 

 25% QD + 75% C Mix 4 1.49 3.15 

5 35% QD + 65% C Mix 5 1.32 2.42 

Split Tensile Strength test results in MPa 

7 Days 28 Days 

6 

 
5 

 
4 

 
3 

 
2 

 
1 

 Mix 1 Mix 2 Mix 3 Mix 4 Mix 5 



 

 

 

 

Table 6.6: Flexural Strength test results 
 

 
Graph 6.5: Flexural Strength test results 

 

6.0 CONCLUSIONS 
• The value of slump for the 

concrete decreases with 
increasing the percentage of 

Quarry Dust for concrete. 

 The value of compaction factor 
for the concrete is maximum for 

MIX 5 (35% QD + 65% C) 

 The compressive strength of 

concrete increase when cement is 
replaced by quarry dust up to 

25%. At 25% replacement, the 
maximum compressive strength 

obtained is 

44.21 N/mm2.The compressive 

strength increased by 14.17% 

when compared to conventional 

concrete. 

 The spilt tensile strength of 

concrete increase when cement is 

replaced by quarry dust up to 

15% and later the strength 

gradually decreased when cement 

is replaced beyond 15%. At 15% 

replacement, the maximum split 

tensile strength obtained is 5.53 

N/mm2. The spilt tensile strength 

increased by 22.34% when 

compared to conventional 

concrete. 

 The flexural strength of concrete 

increased when cement is 

replaced by quarry dust up to 

15% and later the strength 

gradually decreased when cement 

is replaced up to 35%. 

 At 15% replacement, the 

maximum flexural strength 
obtained is 3.24 N/mm2. The 

flexural strength increased by 
39.65% when compared to 

conventional concrete. 

 Results of present study indicates 

that mechanical properties of 

concrete are high in which 
cement is replaced with quarry 

dust compared to Conventional 
Concrete. 

  

REFERENCES 

[1] Comparative Study on Partial 

Replacement of Cement with Quarry 

Dust and Rice Husk Ash, Volume: 06 

Issue: 03, Mar 2019 IRJET 

[2] Partial Replacement of Cement with 

Quarry Dust and Rice Husk Ash in 

Concrete (IRJET) (Volume 5). 

MIX 5 MIX 4 MIX 3 MIX 2 MIX 1 

1.12 
1.32 

1.49 1.41 1.32 

2.42 
2.32 

2.76 

3.15 3.24 

Flexural Strength test results in MPa 

7 Days 28 Days 



 

 

[3] Strength Properties of Concrete with 

Partial Replacement of Cement by 

Granite Quarry Dust (IJERT). 

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with value creation opportunities, 

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Engineering and Technology (IJLTET), 

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“SPECIAL CONCRETE BY USING 

QUARRY DUST 

AS PARTIAL REPLACEMENT OF 

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April -2020 

[7] Venkata Sairam Kumar N.,

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