Effect of Silica Fume on Steel Slag Concrete

Concrete is the most versatile construction material because it can be designed to withstand the harshest environments while taking on the most inspirational forms. Engineers are continually pushing the limits to improve its performance with the help of innovative chemical admixtures and supplementary cementitious materials. Nowadays, most concrete mixture contains supplementary cementitious material which forms part of the cementitious component. These materials are majority byproducts from other processes. The main benefits of SCMs are their ability to replace certain amount of cement and still able to display cementitious property, thus reducing the cost of using Portland cement. The fast growth in instralisation has resulted in tons and tons of byproduct or waste materials, which can be used as SCMs such as fly ash, silica fume, ground granulated blast furnace slag, steel slag etc. The use of these byproducts not only helps to utilize these waste materials but also enhances the properties of concrete in fresh and hydrated states. Slag cement and fly ash are the two most common SCMs used in concrete. Most concrete produced today includes one or both of these materials. For this reason their properties are frequently compared to each other by mix designers seeking to optimize concrete mixtures. Perhaps the most successful SCM is silica fume because it improves both strength and durability of concrete to such extent that modern design rules call for the addition of silica fume for design of high strength concrete. To design high strength concrete good quality aggregates is also required. Steel slag is an industrial byproduct obtained from the steel manufacturing industry. This can be used as aggregate in concrete. It is currently used as aggregate in hot mix asphalt surface applications, but there is a need for some additional work to determine the feasibility of utilizing this industrial byproduct more wisely as a replacement for both fine and coarse aggregates in a conventional concrete mixture. Replacing all or some portion of natural aggregates with steel slag would lead to considerable environmental benefits. Steel slag aggregate generally exhibit a propensity to expand because of the presence of free lime and magnesium oxides hence steel slag aggregates are not used in concrete making. Proper weathering treatment and use of pozzolanic materials like silica fume with steel slag is reported to reduce the expansion of the concrete. However, all these materials have certain shortfalls but a proper combination of them can compensate each other’s drawbacks which may result in a good matrix product with enhance overall quality. In the present work a series of tests were carried out to make comparative studies of various mechanical properties of concrete mixes prepared by using ACC brand Slag cement , Fly ash cement and their blend (in 1:1 proportion ). These binder mixes are modified by 10% and 20% of silica fume in replacement. The fine aggregate used is natural sand comply to zone II as per IS 383-1982.The coarse aggregate used is steel making slag of 20 mm down size. The ingredients are mixed in 1: 1.5: 3 proportions. The properties studied are 7days, 28days and 56 days compressive strengths, flexural strength, porosity, capillary absorption. The main conclusions drawn are inclusion of silica fume increases the water requirement of binder mixes to make paste of normal consistency. Water requirement increase with increasing dose of silica fume. Water requirement is more with fly ash cement than slag cement. The same trend is obtained for water binder ratio while making concrete to achieve a target slump of 50-70 mm. The mortar strength (1:3) increases with increasing percentage of silica fume. Comparatively higher early strength gain (7-days) is obtained with fly ash cement while later age strength (28 days) gain is obtained with slag cement. Their blended mix shows comparatively moderate strength gain at both early and later ages. Mixing of silica fume had made concrete sticky ie more plastic specifically with fly ash cement. The porosity and capillary absorption tests conducted on mortar mixes show decrease in capillary absorption and porosity with increase in silica fume percentage with both types of cements. The decrease is more with fly ash cement than slag cement. But the reverse pattern is obtained for concrete i.e. the results show decrease in 7days,28 days and 56 days compressive strength of concrete due to inclusion of silica fume in the matrix. The increasing dose of silica fume show further decrease in strength at every stage. Almost same trend is obtained for flexural strength also. The specimens without silica fume had fine cracks which are more visible in concrete made with slag cement than fly ash cement.