Author : T. Sivakumar and R. Sivaramakrishnan

India is one of the world’s fastest growing economies and growth expected to continue at 7-7.5%. Infrastructure development is the backbone for the economic growth and prosperity of any nation. The exploitation of natural resources is a key factor in economic growth and development which have serious negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts. Steadily rising global demand for raw materials have been one of the main drivers of the depletion and degradation of natural resources. For sustainable development the use of alternate materials for cement and aggregates are being studied. The main opportunity zones for the use of sustainable materials in the Indian construction industry lie in using sustainable alternatives to aggregates. Copper slag is considered as one of the waste materials which can have a promising future in construction industry as partial or full substitute of either cement or aggregates. Only about 15% to 20% of copper slag generated is presently used for various purposes and remaining material is dumped as a waste. In this study M30 concrete is used to determine various mechanical properties by substituting copper slag for sand partially in concrete. For sand replacement, four test groups (including control mixture) were constituted with replacement of 0% (control specimen), 30%, 40% and 50% copper slag with sand in each series. Concrete cubes, cylinders, and RCC beams are cast and tested in laboratories. The optimum level of replacement of copper slag is found to be 40% and the results are better than that of control mix.

Keywords: Copper Slag Concrete, Compressive Strength, Split Tensile Strength, Flexural Strength, Flexural Behaviour

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.6, No.3 (June-2016)