Cementitious materials and agricultural wastes as natural fine aggregate replacement in conventional mortar and concrete

• FA sand exhibited positive effect on the properties of mortar/concrete.
• BA sand showed positive effect on some properties and negative on the others.
• SF and MK sand showed positive effect on compressive strength.
• SS sand showed positive effect on compressive strength and freeze/thaw resistance.
• Some agricultural sand showed positive effect on compressive strength, others showed negative.

In the last 15 years, the worldwide consumption of natural sand as fine aggregate in mortar/concrete production is very high and many developing countries have encountered some problems in the supply of natural sand in order to meet the increasing demands of construction development. In many countries there is a shortage of natural sand that is suitable for construction. On the other hand, disposal of wastes such as fly ash (FA), bottom ash (BA) and agricultural wastes can be considered as the major environmental challenges. This challenge continues to increase with the increase of these wastes. Therefore, studies have been carried out to find suitable solutions of the shortage of natural sand and the huge increasing in the wastes disposal. One logical option to solve this problem is employing these materials as a part of fine aggregate instead of natural one in mortar/concrete. This paper presents an overview of the previous studies carried out on the use of the previous wastes as a partial or full of natural fine aggregate replacement in traditional mortar/concrete mixtures based on Portland cement (PC). Other cementitious material such as ground basaltic pumice and metakaolin (MK), which can replace part or full of natural fine aggregate was also included. Fresh properties, hardened properties and durability of mortar/concrete containing these waste/cementitious materials as natural fine aggregate replacement have been reviewed.