Concrete Properties Comparison When Substituting a 25% Cement with Slag from Different Provenances

Abstract

Concrete consumption greatly exceeds the use of any other material in engineering. This is due to its good properties as construction material and the availability of its components. Nevertheless, the present worldwide construction increase and the high-energy consumption for cement production means a high environmental impact. On the other hand, one of the main problem in iron and steel industry is waste generation and by-products that must be properly processed or reused to promote the environmental sustainability. One of these by-products are blast furnace slag. Cement substitution by slag strategy achieves two goals, raw materials consumption reduction and waste management. In the present work, four different concrete mixtures are evaluated. 25% cement is substituted by different blast furnace slag. Tests are made to evaluate the advantages and drawbacks of each mixture. Depending on the origin, characteristics and treatment of the slag, concrete properties change. Certain mixtures provide proper concrete properties. Stainless steel slag produces a fluent mortar that reduces the water consumption whit a slight mechanical strength loss. Mixture with electric arc slag furnace properties are better to the reference concrete (without slag) when slag is treated similarly to the cement.

New EAF Slag Characterization Methodology for Strategic Metal Recovery

“…Selected studies [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ] of numerous recent research works reported to the scientific journal Materials were devoted to the use and incorporation of steel slags in road construction materials and concrete. The BOF slag incorporated in the asphalt mixture is advantageous for improving the ability of this mixed material to resist the deformation and enhancing the stability of structure, according to Ye et al [ 12 ].…”

“…Parron-Rubio et al [ 16 ] reported replacing cement by 25% slag, which is considered to be a good strategy for reducing cement consumption and solving the waste problem. The use of steel slag as a partial replacement for cement could make a significant contribution to the steel industry and help to reduce CO 2 emissions [ 17 ].…”