Evaluation on effect of alkaline activator on compaction properties of red mud stabilised by ground granulated blast slag

Abstract

Any industrial waste has a potential to be used as a civil engineering material with an effective and appropriate waste management system. Like many industrial wastes, red mud (RM) and Ground granulated blast slag (GGBS) are some of the industrial wastes produced from aluminium and steel industries respectively. Utilization of only waste materials will not be effective without a suitable stabilizer, which forced to use an alkaline activator to satisfy the needs of a building materials. This paper evaluates measurements to assess the effect of alkaline activator on the compaction properties of GGBS stabilized RM. Different ratios of NaOH to Na2SiO3 was used as an alkaline activator with 10, 20 and 30 percentage replacement of GGBS to RM and measured the compaction properties by using a mini compaction apparatus. Upon conducting standard and modified proctor compaction tests for various combinations of RM and GGBS, the compaction curves depicted that huge variation in maximum dry density and optimum moisture content with the change of GGBS percentage and different ratios of NaOH to Na2SiO3 are measured and analysed. Further the influence of compaction energy on the density characteristics of these trails were assessed for better understanding.