Abstract

Background: Sand plays a very important role in the construction of industry and many buildings, which require massive amounts of natural sand for their projects. Sand is the compound material having components of both organic and inorganic with different proportions. In most of the states of India, the natural sand mining was prohibited due to the dredging of rivers beyond a safe capacity. Due to the shortage of natural sand, most of the industries are utilising artificial sand for the construction purpose. Many of the mining companies transport natural sand for completion of their project illegally, which is prohibited for transportation and construction. This study was taken up to identify whether the transport vehicle is carrying soil, artificial sand, or natural sand. Aim: The forensic comparison of the soil, natural sand, and artificial sand plays a very important role in confirming whether the transporting sandy soil was natural or artificial. Objectives: The physical properties play a very important role in the identification and comparison of the soil, natural and artificial sand in forensic applications. Materials: The present article reports the physical properties such as bulk density, particle density, specific gravity, porosity, and particle size distribution of soil, artificial sand, and natural sand. Particle size distribution of the sample was performed using 355 micron, 250 micron, and 180 micron sieve mesh, respectively. Results: The specific gravity, bulk and particle densities of the artificial sand were found to be high compared to soil and natural sand. The percentage of porosity of the natural sand was found to be high compared to soil and artificial sand.

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