State-of-the-Art Review on Sustainability in Geotechnical Applications of Waste Foundry Sand

Rapid urbanization has led to an increased demand for natural resource like sand in different construction activities. The increased demand has led to practices like sand mining from river beds, which is detrimental to the ecology. Hence, there is an urgent need to replace natural sand in construction activities. One of the ways to move in this direction, is by promoting alternate materials in such a way that engineering behaviour is not compromised. One such alternate material is waste foundry sand (WFS) which is a by-product from the foundries and is otherwise disposed without any targeted application in India and elsewhere. In present study, work from several authors is reviewed and it is observed that while an extensive study has been done on usage of WFS in the field of concrete technology and highway construction, there is insufficient literature available from a geotechnical engineering perspective. The study presents a state-of-the-art review of geotechnical properties and applications of WFS. The study discusses available information of WFS from physical, chemical, toxicity and geotechnical perspective and the same are experimentally determined for WFS sample collected from an iron foundry located at Ludhiana, India. On comparison, the properties are found to be in the range as given in the literature. It can be safely assumed from the findings in the study that WFS is an appropriate material for the replacement of conventional sand in various geotechnical applications.