Resilient Modulus of Hydraulically Bound Road Base Materials with High Volume Waste Dust

The paper presents laboratory test results on hydraulically bound road base materials containing high volume of steel slag and blast furnace slag waste dusts compared with control mixtures. These mixtures contain higher levels of （4mm-0.0 mm） dust, than would be the case in standard un bound road base mixtures. The combined influence of the steel slag and granulated blast furnace slag wastes content is to enhance the stiffness of the road base materials and save materials and cost during road construction. Triaxial repeated load tests were performed on the unbound and lightly bound materials to measure their resilient modulus. The test results show important improvements in the bond strength between the contents of road base materials. This offers the prospect of using these materials in road base materials to reduce the use of primary aggregates and thus minimize the cost of roads and highways construction.

Effects of Al_2O_3 nanoparticles on properties of self compacting concrete with ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) as binder

In this work, strength assessments and percentage of water absorption of self compacting concrete containing ground granulated blast furnace slag （GGBFS） and A1203 nanoparticles as binder have been investigated. Portland cement was replaced by different amounts of GGBFS and the properties of concrete specimens were investigated. Although it negatively impacts the physical and mechanical properties of concrete at early ages of curing, GGBFS was found to improve the physical and mechanical properties of concrete up to 45 wt% at later ages. A1203 nanoparticles with the average particle size of 15 nm were added partially to concrete with the optimum content of GGBFS and physical and mechanical properties of the specimens were measured. A1203 nanoparticle as a partial replacement of cement up to 3.0 wt% could accelerate C-S-H gel formation as a result of increased crystalline Ca（OH）2 amount at the early ages and hence increase strength and improve the resistance to water permeability of concrete specimens. The increase of the A1203 nanoparticles＇ content by more than 3.0 wt% would cause the reduction of the strength because of the decreased crystalline Ca（OH）2 content required for C-S-H gel formation. Several empirical relationships have been presented to predict flexural and split tensile strength of the specimens by means of the corresponding compressive strength at a certain age of curing. Accelerated peak appearance in conduction calorimetry tests, more weight loss in thermogravimetric analysis and more rapid appearance of the peaks related to hydrated products in X-ray diffraction results, all indicate that A1203 nanoparticles could improve mechanical and physical properties of the concrete specimens.

Characteristics of two types of C-S-H gel in hardened complex binder pastes blended with slag

The characteristics of C-S-H gel in hardened Portland cement pastes and complex binder pastes with ground granulated blast furnace slag were investigated with nanoindentation. The composition of C-S-H gel was analysed with SEM-EDS. The obtained results showed that the volume fraction of LD C-S-H gradually reduced and the volume fraction of HD C-S-H increased with the prolongation of hydration age. Most of the C-S-H gel produced at later age was HD C-S-H. The volume fraction of HD C-S-H increased as the fraction of slag in complex binder pastes increased, suggesting that HD C-S-H was mainly in the hydration products of slag. The chemichal compositions of the two types of C-S-H gel were simlar, meaning that formation and transformation of the two types of C-S-H gel were not affected by their Ca/Si ratio.

Effect of ground granulated blast-furnace slag(GGBFS) and silica fume(SF) on chloride migration through concrete subjected to repeated loading

The effect of ground granulated blast-furnace slag(GGBFS) and silica fume(SF) on the chloride migration through concrete subjected to repeated loading was examined.Portland cement was replaced by 20%,30%,40% GGBFS and 5%,10% SF,respectively.Five times repeated loadings were applied to specimens,the maximum loadings were 40% and 80% of the axial cylinder compressive strength(f′c),respectively.Chloride migration through concretes was evaluated using the rapid chloride migration test and the chloride concentration in the anode chamber was measured.The results indicate that the transport number of chloride through concrete containing 20% and 30% GGBFS replacements and 5% and 10% SF replacements is lower than that of the control concrete,but 40% GGBFS replacement increases the transport number of chloride.Five loadings at 40% f′cor 80% f′c increase the transport number of chloride for all mixes investigated in this study.5% SF replacement has a very close effect on the chloride permeability of concrete with 20% GGBFS when concrete is subjected to 40% f′cor 80% f′c.