The Study of Ladle Furnace Slag as Cementitious Material

Steel slag is a by-product of the steelmaking and steel refining processes. Different types of method of steel production resulted to different types of slag: blast furnace slag (BFS), basic oxygen furnace slag (BOFS), electric arc furnace (EAF) acid slag and ladle furnace (LF) basic slag. Southern Steel Malaysia produces about 120,000 tons per year of electric arc furnace slag (EAFS) and ladle furnace slag (LFS). These abundant wastes are initially stockpiled before been disposed to the landfill.
On the other hand, the use of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) in concrete had led to the high emission of Carbon dioxide (CO2). With the aim to further reduce the amount of OPC used and to produce a green binder with a consistent high compressive strength and slower setting time, Ladle Furnace Slag (LFS) and Metakaolin were blended with OPC.
The raw materials in this research which are LFS and Metakaolin were characterized for their chemical, mineralogical and morphological properties. Four samples of mortars with different percentage of LFS composition were made following the standard procedure (ASTM C305-06). These mortars were then tested for initial and setting time test, soundness test and compressive strength test using the standard ASTM C191-08, IS: 4031-Part 3-1988 and ASTM C109 respectively. The sample with the highest compressive strength and shorter setting time will be determined as the best sample and the percentage of LFS used in that sample will be recorded as the optimum percentage of LFS needed to produce the green binder.