Physico-Mechanical Properties of Concrete with Industrial Waste - A Case Study

Abstract

A few waste materials, such as demolition waste, steel slag, quarry dust, fly ash are dumped in landfills. This causes environmental issues and pollution. The present study aims to examine the effect of replacing two types of waste materials i.e., quarry dust and steel slag as partial replacement of cement and sand respectively. Cement was replaced partially with quarry dust between 5 to 20% with 5% intervals and sand was replaced by 75% steel slag consistently for all the concrete mixes. The concrete cubes, beams and cylinders were tested for their strength characteristics by measuring compressive strength, flexural strength and splitting tensile strength. The maximum increase of 4%, 34% and 38% in compressive, flexural and splitting tensile strength respectively was observed with 15% quarry dust replaced with cement and 75% steel slag replaced with sand. Based on the present experimental study, partial replacement of these waste materials shall mitigate the issues occurring due to storage and also by utilizing these materials in concrete as replacement for cement and sand resulting in higher strength properties compared to the naturally available construction materials.