SIKA M-SAND APPROACH IN SEA

PETR DOBRY
TM CONCRETE SEA
ONE MATERIAL – 100 NAMES
 Quarry Dust
 Crushed Sand
 Rock Dust
 M-Sand
 CRF
 Crushed Rock Fines
 Man-Sand
 Crushed Dust
 Super Sand
 Holcim Performance Sand
 Dry Dust
 Washed Dust
Why the M-Sand topic is relevant

• Natural sand sources are depleting/exhausted in many markets in

Emerging Asia
• More environmental/regulatory pressures due to unsustainable
mining/dredging of natural sand
• Irreversible shift towards use of 100% M-sand, e.g. Singapore,
Mumbai, Jakarta, HCMC
• Many standards and concrete technology principles still reflect
only the traditional usage of natural sand
• M-sand performance parameters are often not well-understood
• M-sand mixes are often not performance- and cost-optimized
• AGG producers don’t properly and consistently produce M-sand

Foster better understanding of M-sand to address the

challenges in terms of market perception, mismatching
standards, M-Sand quality parameters and mix cost.
Establishing a system with 3 simple tests to identify
relevant M-sand performance parameters…

MBV

Shape

Mortar
 Methylene Blue - method to quantify clay contamination

Methylene Blue value

(indicator for clay contamination)

Safe and easy test method, based on

colorimetry

The standard Equipment Set

Consumables
 Decision tree approach

1 Negative impact on
Methylen Blue workability
>?
Mitigation will help to increase
% of M-sand replacement
<?

2 Shape improvement
Shape >? recommended to achieve
(0.3 – 4 mm) higher performance

<?

Fines ? Fines
3 Fines ? Fines
correction <? Fineness >?
<150 µm <150 µm correction
Modulus

?% ?%

Good performance expected

Why PCE based admixtures are sensitive to clays??

• Clays have a very high specific surface

 e.g. montmorillonite: 50–800 m2/g (10 g equals to soccer field surface!)
 Wetting all this surface increases the water demand

• The surfaces of clays are charged

 absorption of polar molecules like PCE
superplasticizers or methyleneblue

Methylene blue molecule

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION