A Review on Properties of Sustainable Concrete Using Iron and Steel Slag Aggregate as Replacement for Natural Aggregate

Generation of industrial byproducts has significantly increased due to the tremendous growth in industrialization. One such industrial waste is steel slag, which is a solid effluent of the steel manufacturing industry. India generates about 12MT of slag annually. However, steel slag is not utilized properly, which leads to severe environmental problems such as groundwater pollution, landfilling issues, etc. Slag is a dense material that is used as an alternative green material and is easily implementable in concrete. The variants in the slag are BF slag (BF), BOF slag (BOF), electrical arc furnace slag (EAF), and others. In last decade, many attempts were made to utilize the slag waste in construction industry, viz., in production of cement, railway, and road aggregate. Recently, researchers have successfully used steel slag as aggregate from various sources in the production of concrete. This review focuses on analyzing the properties of steel slag procured from various sources to understand the effect that it has on the properties of concrete, particularly in its fresh and hardened state while shedding light on the durability aspects. The paper also aims to determine the characteristics for advanced concrete types such as High Performance Concrete, Self-Compacting Concrete and Geopolymer Concrete. The study will help in providing a better understanding of the behavior of iron and steel slag aggregates in concrete and enable the efficient use of the same, reducing the consumption of natural aggregates.