Sulfate and Acid Attack Resistance of Iron Slag and Recycled Coarse Aggregate Concrete

Abstract

This study specifically explores the impact of mutual inclusion of ‘iron slag (IS) and recycled concrete aggregates (RCA)’ in non-traditional concrete (NTC) aiming to estimate the resistance against sulfate and acid attacks. The newness of this experimental study is in exploring of role of IS along with RCA in NTC for abovementioned durability properties, which have been comparatively underexplored. Natural sand (NS) and natural coarse aggregates (NA) were replaced with IS and RCA at constant (30%) and varying (25%-100%) amount respectively. In all, six (6) numbers of NTC were tested for sulfate and acid attack resistance while compressive and tensile tests were performed in general support till 90 days of standard curing. The resistance against sulfate and acid attack was measured in relation to variation of mass and corresponding strength performance of designed NTC. The highest increase in mass (by 6%) was noted for NTC with 30% of IS and 100% of RCA. Likewise, for the same NTC the reduction in mass due to acid resistance was limited to 17%. While NTC with IS (IS30RCA0) only and 25% of RCA (IS30RCA25) emerged as equivalent performers in terms of resistance and strength outcomes. These findings not only demonstrate a positive potential of mutual inclusion of IS and RCA in NTC but also present a promising start towards utilization of sustainable construction materials.