Siderurgical Aggregate Cement-Treated Bases and Concrete Using Foundry Sand

Abstract

Cement-treated bases are soils, gravels or manufactured aggregates mixed with certain quantities of cement and water in order to improve the characteristics of a base or sub-base layer. Due to the exploitation of natural aggregates, it is a matter of importance to avoid shortage of natural resources, which is why the use of recycled aggregates is a practical solution. In this paper we studied the feasibility of the use of untreated electric arc furnace slags and foundry sand in the development of cement-treated bases and slag aggregate concrete with a lower quantity of cement. We analyzed the physical, mechanical and durability characteristics of the aggregates, followed by the design of mixes to fabricate test specimens. With cement-treated bases, results showed an optimal moisture content of 5% and a dry density of 2.47 g/cm3. Cement-treated bases made with untreated slag aggregate, foundry sand and 4% of cement content showed an unconfined compression strength at seven days of 3.73 MPa. For siderurgical aggregate concrete mixes, compressive strength, modulus of elasticity and flexural strength tests were made. The results showed that the mixes had good mechanical properties but durability properties could be an issue.

Physical-Mechanical Properties of Cupola Slag Cement Paste

“…One of these options is to recover waste by using it as aggregates for the manufacture of concrete. Although the most commonly used waste is construction and demolition waste [14][15][16][17], there are also a large number of studies in which industrial by-products, such as slag, are incorporated as aggregates [2,18]. Another of the options proposed to achieve the most environmentally friendly concrete has been to recover waste as fines [17,19,20], even generating recycled concrete cements [21,22].…”