Geotechnical Assessment of Steel Slag for River Embankments
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 34, Issue 12
Abstract
In the process of making steel, around 10%–15% of slag is produced. In the last decade, several studies have proposed the application of steel slag as geomaterial. However, its potential application as a subgrade material in river embankments (artificial banks to protect the adjacent land against flooding) has been unexplored hitherto. This study assessed the geotechnical properties of steel slag, riverbank sand, and their various blends. First, the index properties, microstructure, and mineralogy of the slag and sand were evaluated. Then, the strength properties of slag and sand were assessed via the direct shear test at different relative densities and blends. The hydraulic conductivities of the proposed blends were also assessed, and the pH of their effluent discharge was evaluated. The optimal slag-sand mix for strength was found to be (slag content 12.5%), which improved the friction angle of sand from 27° to 37°. The hydraulic conductivities of all the proposed blends were observed to be in the range of , equivalent to that of riverbank sand. Hyperalkalinity of the leachate was observed during the hydraulic conductivity tests. The findings from the present study reveal that substituting a small proportion of riverbank sand with slag improves its strength considerably. However, there are geo-environmental concerns over its application in river embankments due to the hyperalkalinity of the effluent.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
The authors are thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. The authors thank the Centre for Instrumentation Facility (CIF), IIT Guwahati, for providing the resources for microstructural and mineralogical analyses. The authors are also grateful to Mr. Gourav Kumar (Former undergraduate student, IIT Guwahati) and Mr. Hari Ram Upadhyay (Lab technician, IIT Guwahati) for their assistance during the geotechnical testing of the materials.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 34 • Issue 12 • December 2022
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 14, 2021
Accepted: Mar 29, 2022
Published online: Sep 23, 2022
Published in print: Dec 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Feb 23, 2023
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