Effects of Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag and M Sand on the Mechanical Properties of Ordinary Portland cement Concrete

Abstract

Utilisation of waste materials obtained as an industrial by products are increasing day by day. Since the waste materials will be cause more hazardous effects to the surrounding environment if simply dumped in the land. To ensure the safe disposal of industrial waste materials such as Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS), fly ash and etc., many researches are beginning to study the effect of these materials as partial replacement for cement. Using such materials will reduce the carbon footprint due to the production of cement. In this study the replacement of cement using GGBFS is studied to extract the effects of partial replacement of GGBFS on cement concrete. In addition to this, river sand is fully replaced using M – Sand to overcome the high demand and unavailability of river sand as fine aggregate for concrete. M 20 grade of concrete is designed and a mix proportion of 1:2.01:3.62 and 1:1.99:3.62 for conventional concrete and concrete with GGBFS and M Sand respectively. The GGBFS is used as partial replacement for cement with a gradual increase in the percentage of GGBFS from 0 %, 30%, 40%, 50% and 60%. The strength properties such as compressive strength, flexural strength, modulus of elasticity are conducted and observed an increasing trend in strength up to 40% replacement of GGBFS and a decreasing trend in strength above 40 % of GGBFS replacement. Concrete with 40 % of GGBFS as replacement for cement can be suitable for practical applications and will significantly reduce the carbon footprint.