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They're using crushed rocks and mining material leftovers to create artificial sand, thereby reducing their dependence on natural sand by around 80% so far. Saved y'all a click.
Which, if it works well, is a big deal as the headline claims.
The world is slowly but surely running out of sand which has the right consistency and courseness to be used as an ingredient for concrete. Manufacturing that sand artificially so that it is suitable for concrete is rather tricky, from what I understand.
That said.. I've seen the weak-ass concrete mixes used in some Chinese tofu-dreg buildings. Let's hope that the artificial sand is not the culprit there.
When I lived there it was normal for pieces of buildings to fall off and kill people. One building, all the embellishment was made of painted Styrofoam lol. China building construction is horrendous.
At least if the styrofoam falls down it can't kill someone by hitting them on the head. Maybe it was for safety reasons? /s
It'll be fake artificial sand, normal sand that shouldn't be used for concrete
I love close to the pismo dunes, all I see is sand, back yard is sand, sand gets in my house, I’m blown away there is a ahortage
It's not that there is a shortage of sand in general. There is a shortage for the correct kind of sand needed to make a sufficiently strong concrete mix, in the places where that concrete is needed
Crushing gravel and other mining waste into sand isn't quite "artificial" sand...
Like how there's no such thing as an artificial diamond, just a man made one.
The sand is sand, it's just mand made.
There isn't sand. Humans did a thing. There's sand.
There isn't a diamond. Humans did a thing. There's a diamond.
Those are the literal definitions of "artificial".
artificial adjective ar·ti·fi·cial ˌär-tə-ˈfi-shᵊl 1 a : made, produced, or done by humans especially to seem like something natural : man-made an artificial reef artificial sweetener an artificial limb artificial diamonds
I'm somewhat relieved they weren't grinding up plastic waste to mix into their sand.
Tofu Dreg, they also love using beach sand as an aggregate. Problem is all the salt, then the rebar rusts, swells and destroys the concrete.
/used to pour concrete.
Would crushed beton also work? I mean, if the ~~piece~~ particle size and form is right.
Normally crushed materials don't work well because the shape of the particles. Sand is smoothed by years of waves, crushed rock is jagged. This leads to issues with viscosity.
A direct example: railroad rocks. Rail tracks are laid on very well engineered rocks, that are designed to lock together under the weight of a train. They have a roughly 1x1x2 cross sectional ratio, specifically for that purpose. You don't want that happening when you pour concrete.
To elaborate a little, the reason you use specific sand for concrete, and not just any sand is because of viscosity. When you use a sand that is too coarse, the mixture becomes more thick and viscous, which is harder to pour. So you end up adding more water to the recipe to make it pourable which makes it weaker since the ratio of water to cement is thrown off
I live at in Central Florida, and there is a sand mine right down the road from me. The sand is so predominant here that there is literally a natural sand dune near there, nowhere near a shoreline. The local road divides it. We literally live on a beach 60 miles from shore.
Colorado has https://www.nps.gov/grsa/index.htm over 800 miles from the nearest ocean, and 8200 feet above sea level.
And of course the's also the Sahara.
Florida is mostly sandy soil and water, it will all be part of the ocean some day.
Lemme guess. Impacts on concrete availability and construction supply chains
Nope!