Performance of Iron Ore Tailings as Partial Replacement for Sand in Concrete

Abstract

This paper reports preliminary findings on the properties of concrete produced using iron ore tailings obtained from ZCM Minerals SDN BHD located in Kotta Tingi, Johor, Malaysia. The Iron Ore Tailings (IOT’s) a waste product, with particle size range from (850μm - 75μm) obtained from Iron Ore Processing was utilized as fine aggregate to produce concrete. Based on British Standard (BS) guidelines, normal concrete mix was designed. Five types of concrete samples (C0, C1, C2, C3, and C4) were produced, with the percentage of tailings used to replace sand as fine aggregate ranging from 0 to 40[%]. The reference sample is C0 with no tailings and the four others, containing tailings at 10[%] intervals. The effect of iron ore tailings on the consistency of the fresh concrete were studied, as well as the density, compressive strength, flexural strength and splitting tensile strength, of the hardened concrete. The results of the consistency tests on concrete shows that the slump values ranges from 81 to 53[mm] from concrete sample C0 to C4 respectively, while the compacting factor values ranges from 0.92 to 0.89 respectively. The density of the produced concrete cube samples falls within the range 2350 to 2430[kg/m3]. The concrete sample C3 gave the highest compressive strength value of 43.70[N/mm2]. The concrete sample C3 also gave the highest flexural strength value of 4.79[N/mm2], while the The concrete sample C4 gave the highest splitting tensile strength value of 4.0[N/mm2] after curing period of 28[days].