Assessment of induction furnace steel slag as a potential river sand substitute for the production of standard concrete

Abstract The global construction industry consumes about 50 billion tons of sand every year and in the last two decades; the consumption has tripled in amount. As a critical concern, continuous research is in progress to examine numerous materials as alternatives of river sand. This study focuses to completely replace river sand by induction furnace steel slag (IFSS) for producing standard concrete of M25 grade without compromising the mechanical strength of the resulting mix. One hundred and fifty millimeter sized cubes and 150 mm × 300 mm sized cylinders were casted using Portland slag cement (PSC) and Portland pozzolana cement (PPC) as per Indian standard provisions. Laboratory tests were performed to assess workability, hardened density, compressive strength (7 and 28 days) and splitting tensile strength (28 days). At 100% replacement level, the obtained values of (PSC, PPC) specimens are: slump values (35, 40 mm); hardened density (2730, 2790 kg/m 3 ); compressive strength (34.83, 38.10 MPa) and splitting tensile strength (3.03, 3.32 MPa). This research will act as a game‐changer in the construction industry towards a global sustainable future.