ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF IRON SLAG AND ITS UTILIZATION FOR IMPROVEMENT OF ROAD BASES

Abstract

The Electric arc furnace (EAF) slag considered as a waste product, its chemical composition nearly similar to the cement waste products and generally consist of calcium and silicate minerals. The iron and steel production rates in Egypt increase annually result in a significant increase in the resulted waste products (slags). Very small percentage of EAF slag was utilized in the engineering applications result in accumulation of a huge quantities of steel slag. In order to validate the utilization of EAF slag in such applications a group of tests must be performed to investigate the environmental impacts of the EAF slag utilization such as the chemical and mineral composition, the boiling test, pH and leaching test. In this study the EAF slag was utilized in two different applications the 1st in stabilization of problematic soil and the 2nd in blended cement production. The study investigate three important sections: • Study the chemical and mineral composition of the Egyptian EAF slag and study the environmental impacts of EAF slag (pH, volume stability and heavy metals leaching). • Improvement of the engineering characteristics for the Egyptian problematic soil material, where some of Egyptian soils have a construction problems due to the expansion and contraction and the increasing of the free swelling percent as a result of the presence of montomorillonite mineral. • Improvement of the engineering characteristics of the concrete pastes to evaluate the possibility of using EAF slag in blended cement production. The laboratory tests which examined the study materials and the