Use of Blast Furnace Slag Aggregate in Concrete

The Iron industries produce a huge quantity of blast furnace slag as by-product, which is a non-biodegradable waste material from that only a small percentage of it is used by cement industries to manufacture cement. In the present investigation Blast Furnace Slag from local industries has been utilised to find its suitability as a coarse aggregate in concrete making. Replacing all or some portion of natural aggregates with slag would lead to considerable environmental benefits. The results indicate that the unit weight of Blast Furnace Slag aggregate concrete is lower than that of the conventional concrete with stone chips. The experimental result show that replacing some percentage of natural aggregates by slag aggregates causes negligible degradation in strength. The compressive strength of Blast Furnace Slag aggregate concrete is found to be higher than that of conventional concrete at the age of 90 days. It has also reduced water absorption and porosity beyond 28 days in comparison to that of conventional concrete with stone chips used as coarse aggregate.