Cementitious and pozzolanic behavior of electric arc furnace steel slags

The cementitious and pozzolanic behavior of electric arc furnace steel slag, both as received and treated has been studied in detail. The as received slag was completely crystalline and multi-phasic with Fe-substituted monticellite as the predominant phase. Treatment of this slag, remelting and water quenching, results in reduction of Fe-oxide content coupled with an increase in basicity index which makes it more hydraulic compared to the as received slag. The remelted slag has several phases with merwinite as the dominant phase. Thermal analysis of the hydrated slag shows that treating the as received slag increases the water absorption capacity, a property essential for cementitious behavior. Compression strength of the slag blended cements was studied and it was found that substitution of 20% ground granulated blast furnace slag with electric arc furnace steel slag does not decrease the strength beyond 28 days. The control cement has a strength of 58.6 MPa compared to 58 MPa for the cement comprising of 20% untreated slag. The substitution of this untreated slag with treated slag exhibits the highest strength, 61 MPa and a potential for further strength increase after 28 days. In the case of cement mix with no blast furnace slag, substitution of 15% clinker with steel slag does not decrease the strength significantly, 64.4 MPa compared to 66.5 MPa for the control cement. Substituting 30% clinker in the cement mix with electric arc furnace slag however results in significant decrease in strength, 53.4 MPa. The pozzolanic strength of the slag was found to increase significantly due to remelting from 2.0 MPa for the as received slag to 8.0 MPa for the treated slag.