Investigation of alternative ways for recycling waste foundry sand: an extensive review to present benefits

Abdulgazi Gedik, Abdullah Hilmi Lav, Musaffa Aysen Lav
2018 Canadian journal of civil engineering (Print)  
A B S T R A C T Foundry sand, an indispensable component of the metal casting process, is discarded after a number of metal casting operations. Since virgin sand is required for the new processes, and the spent foundry sand is treated as waste, a huge amount of discarded sand is either stockpiled or dumped into landfills. This results in a wide scale consumption of natural resources despite the fact that this "waste" can be recycled as a viable resource in various engineering processes. To this
more » ... end, this study represents a detailed investigation into the possible uses for waste foundry sand. Obtained results concluded that this material can best be utilized in highway and hydraulic barrier construction, as well as low strength concrete production. Thus, the recycling of waste foundry sand results in the conservation and saving of natural and financial resources. A foundry is a manufacturing plant that produces metal castings by pouring molten metal into preshaped molds. This process requires the use of foundry sand, a kind of high quality size-specific silica sand. Generally speaking, approximately one ton of foundry sand is needed to produce one ton of metal casting (Collins and Ciesielski 1994). Sand's resistance to high pressure and heat of the molten metal, its easily availability, and its low cost rank among the main reasons why this kind of material is
doi:10.1139/cjce-2017-0183 fatcat:rgbr4mcngfbalhxl3oyhb2h4hi