Use of Blast Furnace Slag as a Partial Replacement of Cement in Concrete

Abstract

Cement is a very effective and old binding material used in concrete for years. The basic ingredient of cement is limestone i-e CaCO3 (calcium carbonate). Cement has an inherited problem that a lot of carbon dioxide gas is evolved, when CaCO3 is heated in the kiln, which is very harmful to our society and environment. The purpose of this project / research work is to make efforts and suggest ways to minimize the use of cement in concrete and to find a best suitable replacement which not only enhances the compressive strength of concrete but also increases its other properties. Therefore, towards the attainment of this goal, GGBS is one of the option we found. First of all we calculated optimum ratio at which cement can be replaced by slag in concrete that gives maximum compressive strength which was 30%. Then, by using this replacement factor, we determined the flexure strength, tensile strength, sulphate resistance and strain value of slag-cement concrete. Finally, the results of slag-cement concrete were compared with that of cement concrete. At the end, after the comparative study, we found GGBS (ground granulated blast