In the building domain, the non-renewable resource of sand is widely used to produce concrete and mortar. The sand production has been estimated to be more than 10 billion tons with a total of 1.2 billion tons used in concrete in the last decade, which causes the gradual reduction of available building materials and impacts the environment. Since there are abundant desert sand resources in northwestern China, it would be viable to utilize desert sand as an alternative material for concrete production. In this study, an investigation of dynamic mechanical behaviors of desert sand concrete (DSC) was conducted. Various desert sand replacement ratios (0–100%) were used to replace the equivalent hill sand as fine aggregate. Experimental results showed that strain rate had a strong effect on the dynamic mechanical behaviors of DSC. The compressive strength (at room temperature) and flexural strength (after elevated temperature) increased with desert sand replacement ratio (DSRR) with the optimum replacement ratio of 40%, which was because the increase of DSRR improved the compaction of DSC. However, the effect of the low strength of desert sand was higher than that of the compaction when the DSSR exceeded 40%, so both strength values generally decreased with the increase of DSRR. Moreover, the dynamic constitutive model of DSC at room temperature was established on the basis of a nonlinear visco–elastic constitutive model (ZWT model), which can predict the stress–strain curves of DSC.

Economical desert sand engineered cementitious composites (DS-ECCs) using a mixture of cement, fly ash, local desert sand, water, low-cost PVA fibers, and chemical additives were developed, aiming for a further enhancement in ductility and toughness. The mechanical behavior of DS-ECCs for two sand samples (from Mu Us and Tengger deserts, China) was determined using uniaxial tension/compression tests and three-/four-point bending tests. The results showed that desert sand-based ECCs with the designed mix ratios had better mechanical properties than the river sand-based ones. Compared with the river sand-based ECCs at 28 and 56 day, the DS-ECCs presented superior ultimate tensile and comparable compression strengths. The excellent ductility was characterized by ultimate tensile and compression strains of 3–7% and over 1%, respectively. Meanwhile, the DS-ECCs showed improved flexural properties with outstanding fracture and bending strengths (4–9 kN and 21–30 kN) and toughness. The findings of this study will further strengthen the mechanical performance of DS-ECCs and broaden their engineering applicability.

Desert sand concrete (DSC) cube and beam (DSCB) specimens were prepared to investigate the influence of desert sand from Ningxia, China, on the flexural behavior of concrete beams. Specimens were produced with different desert sand replacement ratios (DSRRs), and the cubic compressive strength (CCS) of DSC cubes were measured. Digital image correlation (DIC) was applied during four-point bending tests to characterize full-field strain distributions and to track crack initiation and propagation. The results indicate that CCS peaked at a DSRR of 25%. This value represented a 6% increase relative to natural sand concrete (NSC). The ultimate flexural capacity of DSCBs reached its maximum at this DSRR. This corresponded to a 2.5% increase relative to a natural sand concrete beam (NSCB). The cracks in DSCBs developed more significantly. Failure mode of DSCBs transformed from ductile to brittle at a DSRR of 50%. The current Chinese code can provide a reference for the engineering design of DSCBs, and appropriate modifications considering the DSRR are recommended for different stress stages. These findings provide a theoretical basis and technical support for the practical application of DSC.