An Investigation on Properties of Concrete by Partial Replacement of Cement with Ground Glass Blast Furnace Slag

Abstract

Concrete is a mixture of cement, natural  sand, coarse aggregate and water. Nowadays, the most  concrete mixture contains supplementary cementitious  material, which forms part of the cementitious component.  These materials are by-products from other processes  according to the industrial wastes. The benefits of  supplementary cementitious material are their ability to  show cementitious property after replacement of a certain  amount of cement, thus cost reduces in using Portland  cement. The fast growth in industrialization has resulted in  tons and tons of by-product or waste materials, which can  be used as supplementary cementitious material such as  Ground-granulated blast-furnace slag, fly ash, silica fume,  steel slag etc. Further be noted that use of the by-products  not only helps to utilize these waste materials but enhances  the properties of concrete in fresh and hydrated states also.  The Iron industries produce an enormous quantity of blast  furnace slag (B.F.S) as by–product, which is a non– biodegradable waste material from that only a insignificant  percentage of it is used by cement industries to  manufacture cement. In this study, Blast Furnace Slag  from industries has been utilized to find its suitability as  cement in concrete making. This topic also deals with the  advantages and disadvantages of slag being used in  concrete. Replacing some portion of cement with slag  would lead to moderately large environmental benefits. In  this study it is observed that blast furnace slag could be  used as alternative construction material. In the present  examination, cement concrete has good strength and  workability by using ground blast furnace slag as a  replacement for cement. The M45 grade of concrete was  prepared and examined at the hardened stage. Then  different mixes were prepared containing 0%, 43%, 53%,  and 63% as partial replacement of cement with ground  blast furnace slag in different combinations were used to  examine the strength properties.Tests had been conducted  for result of slump, compressive strength, flexural strength,  splitting tensile strength, rebound hammer , abrasion and  acid attack.