Performance of concrete containing steel slag exposed to sulphate environment: A comparison of steel slag and natural aggregate use

Abstract

Concrete behave differently when exposed to sulphate. Sulphate may exist in soil, ground water, sea water and effluent discharge by industry. As a result of sulphate attack, cracking, expansion, spalling, loss in volume and strength may take place. To minimize such occurrence, several factors need to be considered such as water/ cement ratio, permeability of the concrete, condition of sulphate exposure, cement composition, curing condition, etc need to be accounted. The idea of this study is to compare the behavior of normal concrete containing steel slag aggregate and normal aggregate under the exposure of two types of sulphate ions namely, natrium sulphate and magnesium sulphate with 0.3molar 5 % concentration for a period of twenty weeks. The durability of concrete containing steel slag i.e. changes in physical, volume and strength after the immersion process has been observed. The result of different water cement ratio of 0.47, 0.52, and 0.55 and steel slag aggregate replacement of 10%, 50% and 100% of total aggregate proportion are presented and analysed. From the result, it shows that the durability of steel slag aggregate (SSA) and natural aggregate (NA) concrete has the same performance.