EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF CONCRETE USING COPPER SLAG AS A
PARTIAL REPLACEMENT OF FINE AGGREGATE
Under The Guidance of
Mr. ALEX S JOBERT JONI, M.E.,
Faculty of Civil Engineering,
A PROJECT REPORT
Submitted by
T.Jaya Seelan 961311103309
M.Vivek 961311103325
M.Bagavathi Perumal 961311103306
S.K.Mohamed Azarudeen 961311103315
ABSTRACT
Copper slag is considered as one of the waste materials which can. Have a promising future
in construction industry as partial or full substitute of either cement or aggregates. For each ton
of copper production, about 2.2Tonnes of copper slag are generated. This slag is currently used
for many purposes like land filling, construction of abrasive tools, roofing granules, cutting
tools and rail road ballast material, which are not very high value added application.
These applications utilize only about 15% to 20% of Copper slag generated and remaining
material is dumped as a waste. In order to reduce the accumulation of copper slag and also to
provide an alternative Material for sand and cement an approach has been done to investigate the
use Of copper slag in concrete for the partial replacement of sand and cement.
Many researchers have already found it possible to use copper slag as a concrete
aggregate, because copper slag has similar particle size characteristics likely to that of sand.
Fine grained powder of copper slag can be used as a supplementary cementing material to
concrete and in cement clinker production. Although there are many studies that have been
reported by investigators from other countries on the use of copper slag in cement
concrete, not much research has been carried out in India concerning the incorporation of
copper slag in concrete. This research was performed to generate specific experimental data
on the potential use of copper slag as sand and cement replacement partially in concrete.
This research work mainly consists of four main parts.M20Concrete was used to determine
various mechanical properties. First part of the thesis consists of substituting sand partially
by copper slag in concrete. For sand replacement, seven test groups (including control
mixture) were constituted with replacement of 0% (control specimen), 10%, 30%, and50%
copper slag with sand in each series. Concrete cubes, Cylinders testes were carried out.
INTRODUCTION
The utilization of industrial waste or secondary materials has encouraged the production of cement
and concrete in construction field. Newby-products and waste materials are being generated by various
industries. Dumping or disposal waste materials causes environmental and health problems. Therefore,
recycling of waste materials is a great potential in concrete industry. For many years, by-products such as
fly ash, silica fume and slag were considered as waste materials. Concrete prepared with such materials
showed improvement in workability and durability compared to normal concrete and has been used in the
construction of power, chemical plants and under-water structures. Over recent decades, intensive research
studies have been carried out to explore all possible reuse methods. Construction waste, blast furnace, steel
slag, coal fly ash and bottom ash have been accepted in many places as alternative aggregates in
embankment, roads, pavements, foundation and building construction, raw material in the Manufacture of
ordinary Portland cement pointed out by Teik thye luin et al (2006).
Copper slag is an industrial by-product material produced from the process of manufacturing copper.
For every ton of copper production, about 2.2 tons of copper slag is generated. It has been estimated that
approximately 24.6 million tons of slag are generated from the world copper industry (Gorai et al 2003).
Although copper slag is widely used in the sandblasting industry and in the manufacturing of abrasive
tools, the remainder is disposed of without any further reuse or reclamation. Copper slag possesses
mechanical and chemical characteristics that qualify the material to be used in concrete as a partial
replacement for Portland cement or as a substitute for aggregates. For example, copper slag has a number
of favorable mechanical properties for aggregate use such as excellent soundness characteristics, good
abrasion resistance and good stability reported by (Gorai et al 2003).
MATERIALS INVESTIGATION
CEMENT
FINE AGGREGATE
SIEVE ANALYSIS AND FINENESS MODULUS
120
100
percentage Passing (%)
80
60
40
20
0
0.05 0.5 5
Sieves in (mm)
FINE AGGREGATE
COURSE AGGREGATE
SIEVE ANALYSIS FOR COURSE AGGREGATE
90
80
percentage Passing (%) 70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0.1 1 10
Sieves in (mm)
COURSE AGGREGATE
COPPER SLAG
SIEVE ANALYSIS REPORT OF COPPER SLAG
120
100
percentage Passing (%)
80
60
40
20
0
0.05 0.5 5
Sieves in (mm)
Physical Properties slag
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF COPPER SLAG
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Compressive strength test on concrete
cubes
Compressive strength test on concrete cubes
COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH FOR CONCRETE CUBE
60
COPRESSIVE STRENGTH N/mm2
50
40
0% Replacement
30 10% Replacement
30% Replacement
50% Replacement
20
10
0
7 DAYS 14 DAYS 28 DAYS
CURING DAYS
RESULT:
The test results indicate that for mixtures prepared using up to
10% copper slag replacement, the compressive strength of concrete
increased. However, for mixtures with S30 and S50 copper slag, the
compressive strength decreased rapidly. Mixture S10 yielded the
highest 28 day compressive strength of 56 N/mm2 compared with
43.55 N/mm2 for the control mixture, whereas the lowest compressive
strength of 31.11 N/mm2 was obtained for mixture S50 with 50%
copper slag. Still, the S50 values are greater than control mix. This
reduction in compressive strength for concrete mixtures with high
copper slag contents is due to increase in the free water content that
results from the low water absorption characteristics of copper slag in
comparison with sand. This causes a considerable increase in the
workability of concrete and thus reduces concrete strength.
Split Tensile Strength Test on Concrete
Cylinders
Split Tensile Strength Test on Concrete
Cylinders
SPILT TENSILE STRENGTH IN CYLINDER
3.5
Spilt tensile strength N/mm2
2.5
2
0% Replacement
10% Replacement
1.5 30% Replacement
50% Replacement
1
0.5
0
7 DAYS 28 DAYS
CURINR DAYS
RESULT:
The results showed that the average split tensile strength of copper slag
admixed concrete specimens increased in 10% replacement. The reason for
improvement of strength was, copper slag has a better compressibility than
sand, which can partially relieve the stress concentration, if the sand is still as
the dominant fine aggregate holding the concrete matrix together. It is known
that the sand has good abrasion properties because of its rough surface, which
can improve the cohesion between cement paste and coarse aggregate.
However, the abrasion properties of sand is weakened with time after years of
weathering causing sand particles to have rounded edges, which are
detrimental to the interlocking properties of composite materials. The angular
sharp edges of copper slag particles have the ability to compensate to some
extent the adverse effects of sand and, thus, further improve the cohesion of
concrete. This leads to improve the mechanical performance of copper slag
admixed concrete. The maximum increase in strength was obtained at 10%
replacement of copper slag with sand. This showed that the copper slag
admixed concrete are not only increased the compressive strength of concrete
but also increased the split tensile strength values.
CONCLUSION
GENERAL:
The present study investigated the effectiveness of using copper slag (a waste material obtained
from sterlite industry, tuticorin) for the partial replacement of sand.
Since copper slag is a high density material and contains around60% of Fe2O3, durability and
corrosion characteristics were also incorporated in this investigation. Another part of this research
was the applications of copper slag to reduce lateral or seismic earth pressure. In this investigation,
copper slag was used as backfill material in retaining walls and the displacement characteristics was
performed through shake table test.
CONCLUSION:
Based on the investigations, the following conclusions were drawn.
The utilization of copper slag in concrete provides additional environmental as well as technical
benefits for all related industries. Partial replacement of copper slag in fine aggregate and cement
reduces the cost of making concrete.
Replacement of copper slag (100% replacement with sand)increases the self weight of concrete
specimens to the maximum of 15-18%.
The initial and final setting time of copper slag admixed concrete is higher than control concrete.
Water absorption of copper slag was 0.16% compared with1.25% for sand. Therefore, the
workability of concrete increases significantly with the increase of copper slag content in concrete
mixes. This was attributed to the low water absorption and glassy surface of copper slag
The results of compressive, split tensile strength test have indicated that the
strength of concrete increases with respect to the percentage of copper slag added by
the weight of fine aggregate up to 10% (S10). Further additions of copper slag caused
reduction in strength due to an increase of free water content in the mix.
Utilization of copper slag as Portland cement replacement in concrete and as a
cement raw material has the dual benefit of eliminating the costs of disposal and
lowering the cost of the concrete.
It was observed that, the copper slag replacement for sand is more effective than
cement.
Accelerated corrosion test reveals that the corrosion rate of copper slag admixed
uncoated rebar is somewhat higher when compared to control specimens. But when
the rebar is coated with zinc phosphate paint the corrosion rate had become zero.
The addition of copper slag for the replacement of sand shows higher resistance
against Sulphate attack whereas addition of copper slag for the replacement of cement
gives lower resistance.
Seismic shake table test results shows that the lateral earth pressure acting on
retaining wall is reduced when copper slag used as backfill material. Even though
copper slag has higher density than sand , because of its higher shear strength and
angle of internal friction, the seismic lateral earth pressure is greatly reduced.
From these results, it can be concluded that copper slag is a good backfill
material than sand and it can be used as backfill in retaining walls.
THANK
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