Effects of waste ferrochrome slag on the pyshical, mechanical, thermal and microstructural properties of foam concrete

The most commonly used building material in the construction sector is concrete. Concrete has become a material that allows the production of special concretes that show significant developments in production technology and can meet different needs. One of the special concretes that can meet these needs and are produced is foam concrete. Foam concrete is a special type of concrete obtained by adding mortar and foaming agent to each other. However, in parallel with the developments in the construction sector, new materials with better properties can be integrated into foam concrete. The largest proportion among the components used in concrete production belongs to aggregate, and the use of natural resources in aggregate production causes these resources to decrease over time. As a result, it will be difficult to reach aggregates that comply with the standards in the future. As the demand for concrete production increases day by day, the need for aggregate is gradually deepening. Despite the decreasing natural aggregate resources, increasing aggregate production increases energy consumption and CO2 emissions and creates costs. For this reason, the necessity of evaluating waste products in the construction sector has emerged. In addition, one of the biggest problems of today is the disposal of waste products resulting from rapid consumption. One of the facilities where waste products are produced as a result of ferrochrome production is Eti Krom A.Ş. located in Maden district of Elazığ province. Many by-products are produced in parallel with ferrochrome production in the facility. It was aimed to evaluate the ferrochrome slag from the by-products formed in the construction sector and the waste ferrochrome slag was integrated into foam concrete. Within the scope of the study, the cement dosage of the mixtures was determined as 500 kg/m3 and ferrochrome slag was added to the mixtures at 0%, 50% and 100% by weight instead of crushed stone aggregate. Foam content was used in the mixtures at two different rates as 25 kg/m3 and 50 kg/m3. Physical, mechanical, thermal and microstructural tests were performed on the produced foam concrete samples and also cost analysis, embodied energy and embodied CO2 values were investigated. Within the scope of this thesis, it was determined that dry unit weights varied between 995-1050 kg/m3, 28-day compressive strengths varied between 10.13-17.68 MPa and thermal conductivity coefficients varied between 0.228-0.246 W/mK. In terms of cost and sustainability, the use of ferrochrome slag in foam concrete yielded beneficial results. The results obtained showed that it is possible to evaluate ferrochrome slag in foam concrete.