Activity of reducing steel slag of EAF

Reducing steel slag (RSS) was mainly acquired from five electric-arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking plants (among them, the products of two plants were carbon steel and those of other plants were stainless steel) for research tests. The chemical properties, compound compositions, activities and contents of main expansive compounds were tested. The results showed that the field sampled RSS had a very high crystallinity and hydraulicity with main chemical compositions close to those of Portland cement. It can be known from the study that in case of C/S ratio higher than 2.0, the main compound compositions are C₂S, C₃S, C₂F and f-CaO. However, after the RSS was stored for six months, an obvious variation occurred with potential pre-hydration in RSS, where the SO₃ content was slightly reduced and the compressive activity index was obviously higher than that at the 28th day.