ENGINEERING CHARACTERISTICS OF ECO - FRIENDLY COMPOSITE MADE FROM STEEL SLAG - RICE HUSK AND GYPSUM

Abstract

Steel slag waste is a by-product from steel production and rice husk is a renewable waste produced from rice peeling. These wastes can be used as Eco-Friendly building materials instead of polluting materials like gypsum and cement. The aim of this work is to investigate the behavior of building materials resulting from the mix of gypsum, steel slag and rice husk in different percentages. The work was conducted in three phases. The first phase was conducted to investigate the effect of replacing gypsum by steel slag waste with different weight ratio (namely, 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50%) on the compressive strength of gypsum steel slag mixture at 1, 7, and 28 days. The second phase was conducted to investigate the water resistance of the developed gypsum steel slag mixture. The third phase was conducted to study the effect of addition of rice husk with different weight ratio (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 %) to the highest strength of gypsum steel slag mixture, which optioned from last phases. Compressive strength, flexural strength, water absorption and density of the gypsum steel slag-rice husk mixtures were determined and investigated. The results showed the highest compressive strength and water resisted for gypsum slag mixture that was at slag percent of 30%. Also, compressive strength and density of gypsum steel slag rice mixture were reduced by increasing the rice husk content. The best rice husk content was 15 % to enhance the flexural properties of steel slag-rice husk-gypsum mixture binder.