The utilization of steel slag as construction material

With the industrial revolution, the industry has began to develop fastly and wastes have began to be dangerous for the environment and human health. For this reason, the recycling of wastes is very important today. In the iron and steel industries, a part of waste slag is used as additives in cement production after passed from crushing and screening units. However, a great amount of waste slags, especially steel slag, are not appropriate for using as aggregate because of its chemical and mineralogical composition, hence they are stored in waste store fields. In this project, the usage of slag wastes as construction material, that are formed during iron and steel productions at İSDEMİR A.Ş., was studied. For this purpose, the required tests, for the usability of steel slags, have been accomplished according to the standard test methods. For determining particle size, distribution test was accomplished. Also, to examine the chemical properties of steel slags, acid soluble sulfates, water soluble chlorides, total sulphur content, humus content, lightweight contaminants tests and XRF and XRD analysis were accomplished. According to the results of all experiments, the usage of steel slags as construction material was examined. Steel slag was used to produce C25 and C30 class concrete. 3, 7 and 28 days compressive strength results of produced concrete were compared with the results of reference concrete produced with natural coarse aggregate and fly ash.