Sand is a cornerstone ingredient in all construction and maintenance materials for both natural and artificial playing surfaces.
Whether mixed with an organic amendment to produce topdressings, rootzones and divot mixes, or used on its own as a synthetic carpet infill or beach sport surface, sand plays a vitally important role in a playing surface’s performance, appearance and longevity.
Ruffords Technical Manager, Mick Higgins, explains what sand is and introduces some basic considerations
right one for your project. S
What is sand and where does it come from?
Sand is an inorganic granular mineral composed of individual particles or grains formed by the weathering and erosion of rock.
These small, finely divided fragments
of rock will vary in chemical composition depending upon the source and condition of the parent rock from which they were derived.
As far as the UK is concerned, sand
refers to a material which has a grain size distribution between 0.063mm and 2.0mm. However, there are some countries, including the USA, who categorise sand particles as those having a diameter between 0.053mm and 2.0mm.
In the UK all particles less than 0.063mm but greater than 0.002mm are classed as silt, with particles less than 0.002mm categorised as clay. Any particles greater than 2.0mm are categorised as gravel. It is important to remember that any particle between 0.063mm and 2.0mm would be classed as sand, including material with very high
and comes in many different forms, all of varying quality with a range of properties and physical characteristics, so the challenge is to select the
calcium content (calcareous sands). The majority of sands quarried in the UK consist mainly of silicon dioxide (SiO2
),
otherwise known as silica. There are, in fact, nine different crystalline forms of silica, but most of us associate it with quartz silica. In this form it has a high melting point and is also inert, stable and extremely hard wearing. Surface hardness of sand grains can be measured using the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, which measures the ability of a harder mineral to scratch a softer mineral. This scale ranges from 1, being the softest (talc), up to 10 being the hardest (diamonds). Typically, sands containing high silica content would have a hardness of around 7 using the Mohs scale.
The actual percentage of silica in sands can vary from around 80% up to 99.99%. Industrial silica sands are characterised by their high silica content (above 95% SiO2
), which is
usually in the form of quartz. Generally, whiter, paler coloured sands have fewer impurities. Typical impurities would normally include Iron oxide (Fe2 Alumina (Al2
O3 O3 ), however, surface clays,
feldspar, pyrite, chromite, coal, lignite, sea shells or chloride salts could be present.
The terms: silver sand, beach sand, soft sand, sharp
) and
Sand for
sportsturf
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