Sustainability of Copper Slag as a Building Material Under Elevated Temperature

Abstract

River sand is the standard practice of fine aggregate used for the concrete production. In this present era of rapid urbanisation, to meet the increasing demand for natural sand by the construction industry, massive scale depletion of the river bed is being carried out which is causing a considerable negative impact on our environment. Hence, it is highly imperative to find sustainable fine aggregates to meet the global demand without disturbing our ecosystem. Copper slag is one such sustainable material which has a promising future to be used as an alternative to river sand. This paper presents a study on finding the optimum dosage of copper slag (CS) for partial replacement of sand in concrete. Further, as part of durability study, the impact of elevated temperature of 200, 400 and 600 °C for 12 h exposure period on strength characteristics of copper slag blended concrete has been presented and been compared with that of normal concrete. The results indicate that copper slag concrete has excellent resistance to weight and strength loss at an elevated temperature of 200, 400 °C compared to normal concrete; however, at 600 °C copper slag concrete shows similar trends like normal concrete. In the present experimental study, M20 & M30 concrete grades were used.