Laboratory Investigation of Dry Lean Concrete with Copper Slag

Abstract

At present about 33 million tonnes of copper slag is generated annually worldwide, India contributing 6 to 6.5 million tones of this slag. As per scientific estimate, for every tonne of copper metal produced, around 1.8-2.2 tonnes of slag is generated. In states like Kerala, Maharashtra and Gujarat, sand mining in rivers has already been banned owing to its disastrous impact ecology. “Therefore, slag has a big potential of getting developed as a suitable alternative material to these resources”. With increasing shortage of river sand and natural aggregates across the country, construction sector is under tremendous pressure to explore alternative to these basic construction material to meeting growing demand of infrastructure demands. The reuse of waste materials derived from industry waste is growing all over the world. One of the most environmentally responsible ways of meeting the challenges of sustainability in construction is the use of slag in new construction. The main objective of the study is to investigate the effect of using copper slag in lieu of natural fine aggregate on strength properties of Dry lean Concrete. Dry Lean Concrete (DLC) is an important part of modern rigid pavement. It is a plain concrete with a large ratio of aggregate to cement than conventional concrete and generally used as a base/sub-base of rigid pavement. The compaction of DLC is done under 10 to 12T vibratory roller in field , that’s why it is also known as Roller – Compacted Concrete or RCC concrete. From all the combination it is observed that Density is maximum(2.571 g/cc) of the mix (SCS- 20-80) where 20% Fine Aggregate and 80% Copper Slag at 5.0% moisture content from this we can say that density of mix increases with the increases of copper slag in the mix and it uses less moisture content. It is due to the density of copper slag is more that the densities of sand and copper slag also having a less water absorption. From all the combinations of mixes it observed that Compressive Strength of 28days is maximum(22.49 N/mm2) of the mix S-CS-60-40 at 5.0% moisture content From all combination it is concluded that although 28days compressive strength is Maximum in the Mix S-CS-60-40 but compressive strength (28 days) of Mixes S-CS-40-60 & S-CS-20- 80 are also very near to the maximum strength 22.35 N/mm2 and 21.98 N/mm2 respectively at the same moisture content.