Growth in global population leads to increased need for new buildings and infrastructure. This
population growth has in turn causes increased production and consumption rate of cement due to
the need of building durable structures whereby the majority use reinforced concrete. However,
the production of cement results in increase of carbon dioxide emissions, depletion of natural
resources and high energy consumption which has encouraged the search for more environmental

This study seeks to determine the suitability and potential use of quarry dust in concrete as a partial replacement of river sand and come up with an optimum mix. Concrete mixes bearing varying proportions of quarry dust and river sand will be cast and tested, and that which bears the proportion yielding the maximum compressive and tensile strength shall be selected as the ratio for the optimum mix.

A triaxial geogrid will be used to reinforce plain concrete beams of normal strength with both singular and double reinforcement. A three-point bending test will then be carried out on plain unreinforced concrete beams as well as on geogrid-reinforced concrete beams. These tests will have data on maximum load causing cracking, post-cracking maximum load and crack behaviour recorded. From these tests, a conclusion will be drawn on whether it is beneficial to use geogrids as concrete reinforcement for beams.