Slag Wastes from Regional Metallurgical Industry Used in Construction Compositions

Abstract

The physicochemical and mineralogical analysis of metallurgical slag wastes in the Volgograd Region allowed determining the possibility of their use in cement concretes. The presence of latent activity of waste slags from steel smelters (the city of Volgograd) allowed recommending them as a cement binder modifier. At 30 % filling of concrete samples with slag their compressive strength index increased by 10 %, and the bending strength increased by 15 %. The additional grinding of slag with the minimum hydraulic activity from Volzhsky Pipe Plant (VPP) allowed obtaining highly filled compositions when the slag was introduced into fine-grain concretes. The optimum distribution of slag particles in the structure of a concrete composition with 1:1 ratio of cement to slag micro-filler is obtained through the use of two-frequency vibratory compaction. The incremental value of strength properties of a filled composition at the age of 28 to 180 days amounted to 15 % for compression strength and 20 % for bending strength. The occurrence of 70 – 75 % of silicon oxide in the slag from ferrous-alloys manufacturing at Kamyshin Plant for Ferrous-alloys and Casting (KPFC) allows the given material to be characterized as a silica-containing additive which has a large specific surface area after grinding, in combination with amorphous structure of silicon oxide particles. At the amount of 25% of silica-containing slag additive in the “cement+slag” system, the composition strength increases by 30% on average, with an effective reduction in the concrete cost by 25 % on average. Slug wastes provides raw material for concerete industry and decreases environmental contamination. It can be used for the wide range of plants not only described as an example in this article.