Combined influence of glass powder and granular steel slag on fresh and mechanical properties of self-compacting concrete

Abstract

Industrialization has enhanced the utilization of natural resources and add-up in air and land pollution. Now, it’s high time to explore alternative materials to deal with depletion of natural resources especially for construction purposes and to prevent environmental degradation from industrial wastes. This research work is aimed at investigating the combined effect of two industrial wastes i.e. glass powder (GP) and granular steel slag (GSS) as cement and fine aggregate replacement materials on mechanical properties of self-compacting concrete (SCC). Fresh concrete properties studied include workability, density and air content while the hardened concrete properties include compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength and modulus of elasticity. Results indicate increase in workability with increasing glass powder content while there is decreasing trend in workability with increasing steel slag content. Compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength and modulus of elasticity improved with increasing granular steel slag content at constant level of glass powder with maximum increase of 11%, 13.2%, 19.3% and 20% respectively, compared to the control mix. Thus, use of industrial wastes as cement and aggregate replacement can play vital role in reducing utilization of natural resources, besides decreasing land and air pollution, without compromising on mechanical properties of concrete.