Abstract
Aggregates are generally thought of as inert filler within a concrete mix, and a typical concrete mix is comprised of as much as 70–80% of them. They play an essential role in the properties of both fresh and hardened concrete. Nowadays, scientists are aiming to use waste materials, thereby replacing natural aggregates for economic and environmental considerations. This study investigates the effect of the utilization of steel slag by-product aggregates (air- and water-cooled slag) as concrete aggregates on the behavior characteristics of concrete. Various concrete mixtures, with different levels of replacement of slag aggregate (50, 75, and 100%), were conducted in order to find the optimum percentages to improve the microstructure and different properties of concrete (fresh and hardened). The results showed that increasing the fine aggregate replacement percentage led to a decrease in compressive strength values, in contrast with coarse aggregate replaced with slag aggregate. The steel slag aggregates showed potential to be used as replacement for natural aggregate with comparable compressive strength and acceptable workability.
Highlights
Concrete is considered to be one of the most used construction material all over the world
Few researchers studied the effect of using both water-cooled slag (WCS) and Air-cooled slag (ACS) combined in concrete instead of natural sand and dolomite as a fine and coarse aggregate replacement, and the results showed the possibility of partial or full replacement of natural aggregates by steel slag aggregates with comparable features to traditional concrete [40–42,66]
The slump test was carried out to measure the effect of using ACS and WCS on the consistency of concrete
Summary
Concrete is considered to be one of the most used construction material all over the world. Many researchers studied various waste and by-product materials that are available in the local market to find a proper substitute for natural aggregate while eliminating the transportation pollution and expenses [19,20]. Several studies investigated the possibility of using WCS and ACS to replace natural aggregate (sand and crushed dolomite). Numerous researchers study the effect of replacing the natural coarse aggregates with ACS aggregates. Guo et al [64] stated that the optimum replacement ratio of sand by WCS was 20% of the total weight of fine aggregate. Few researchers studied the effect of using both WCS and ACS combined in concrete instead of natural sand and dolomite as a fine and coarse aggregate replacement, and the results showed the possibility of partial or full replacement of natural aggregates by steel slag aggregates with comparable features to traditional concrete [40–42,66]. The cement content and water-to-cement ratio were the same for all the mixes, while those for the replacing aggregate ratios were different percentages: 50, 75, and 100% from the total weight of the aggregates
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