Proceedings of TheIRES 3rd International Conference, Dubai, UAE, 4th July 2015, ISBN: 978-93-85465-46-8

5

COMPARISON OF ENGINEERING PROPERTIES BETWEEN PURE COPPER SLAG BRICK AND SPENT COPPER SLAG BRICK

1SALMALIZA SALLEH, 2RISHANTHI.T

1Senior Lecturer of SEGi University, Faculty of Engineering, Selangor, Malaysia

2SEGi University, Faculty of Engineering, Selangor, Malaysia E-mail: 1salmaliza@segi.edu.my, 2reenaselvan_106@yahoo.com.sg

Abstract- This article presents the comparison of the engineering properties between pure copper slag brick and spent copper slag brick. Pure copper slag is the waste product of copper ore smelting and refining process while spent copper slag is the waste product from the process of abrasive blasting of metal surfaces. It is widely used in ship building, ship repair, other steel fabrication industries, building and industrial fields. According to copper industry report in the year 2010, for every ton of metal production about 2.2 tonne of slag is generated. Improper disposal and dumping of copper slag will cause environmental problems. The main objective of this research is to differentiate the physical and engineering properties of copper slag brick from two different sources which is from copper factory and ship blasting industry. It is a process of adding copper slag powder in percentage proportions as to replace sand in the brick formation. Five laboratory tests were conducted for this research such as compressive strength, water absorption, density and specific gravity to differentiate their properties. Although many researchers have done studies related to pure copper slag but none of these researches compared the properties of both pure copper slag and spent copper slag concurrently in bricks. Hence, this research explored the possibility of utilizing copper slag in construction industry, particularly in bricks. From the result of this research, there is scientific evidence that the engineering properties of pure copper slag is better than spent copper slag. Index Terms- Pure copper slag; spent copper slag; compressive strength; ship blasting; brick

I. INTRODUCTION Copper element is commonly used in electrical equipment such as wiring and motors. It also has uses in construction such as in roofing and plumbing. For every ton of copper produced, about 2.2 ton of copper slag is generated [Khalifa et.al, 2009]. In this current situation, 24.6 million tonnes of copper slag is generated around the world [Nataraja et.al, 2014]. Previous researches have shown that copper slag may be used as a substituent for cement or fine aggregates

in concrete making process [Chavan et.al (2013), Gorai et.al (2003)]. Two different sources of copper slag will be compared in this research. Pure copper slag (PCS) is the waste product of copper ore smelting and refining process while spent copper slag (SCS) is the waste product from the process of abrasive blasting of metal surfaces. It is widely used in ship building, ship repair, other steel fabrication industries, building and industrial fields. The physical properties of pure copper slag and spent copper slag from different researches were recorded in Table 1 and Table 2.

Table 1: Physical properties of pure copper slag from different researches

Comparison Of Engineering Properties Between Pure Copper Slag Brick And Spent Copper Slag Brick

Proceedings of TheIRES 3rd International Conference, Dubai, UAE, 4th July 2015, ISBN: 978-93-85465-46-8

6

Table 2: Physical properties of spent copper slag from different

researches

II. MATERIALS AND EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES

2.1 Materials The cement used was ordinary Portland cement (OPC) that complies with MS 522: Part 1: 1989. The pure copper slag (PCS) and spent copper slag (SCS) shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 were taken from a warehouse in Port Klang and operational ship repair yard located at Pasir Gudang, Johor (Malaysia) respectively. The fine aggregate was washed river sand. Sieve analysis test was conducted in accordance with BS 882:1992 on three sets of waste samples in order to determine the particle size distribution.

Fig. 1. Pure copper slag

Fig. 2. Spent copper slag

2.2 Mix Design and Sample Preparation

The water-cement ratio of the mortar was fixed at 0.45. Four bricks mixtures with different sand replacement from 0% (control cube) to 60% of pure copper slag were prepared. The constituent were

hand-mixed with the overall mixing time of 4 minutes. The mixes were compacted using vibrating table. To determine the unconfined compressive strength, 60 Perspex brick moulds (215 mm x 96 mm x 70 mm) were casted for each brick mixtures.

2.3 Testing of Samples

Brick samples were tested after day 1, day 3, day 7, day 14 and day 28 of air curing in according with BS EN 771-1, using a hydraulic type Universal Testing Machine. At 28th day, surface water absorption and dry density test for brick were done in accordance with BS EN 771-1. III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION Findings of physical properties of pure copper slag and spent copper slag from this research were tabulated in Table 3.

Table 3: Physical properties of pure copper slag and spent

copper slag from this research

3.1 Moisture Content Fig. 3 shows that pure copper slag has high moisture content compared to spent copper slag which means the PCS were dry when received.

Fig. 3 Moisture content of pure copper slag and spent copper

slag

Comparison Of Engineering Properties Between Pure Copper Slag Brick And Spent Copper Slag Brick

Proceedings of TheIRES 3rd International Conference, Dubai, UAE, 4th July 2015, ISBN: 978-93-85465-46-8

7

3.2 Water Absorption Water absorption results were shown in Table 4 for pure copper slag and spent copper slag respectively. This proved that the PCS does not absorb water. Hence, the addition of water in the replacement mixture may be reduced. Fig. 4 shows the water absorption rate of pure copper slag and spent copper slag respectively.

Table 4: Water absorption of fine aggregates

Fig 4: Water absorption of pure copper slag, spent copper slag

and sand 3.3 Compressive Strength The compressive strength test was conducted in University of Malaya and in accordance to BS Part 116: 1983. The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of pure copper slag and spent copper slag as a replacement for fine aggregates in certain percentages of pure copper slag and spent copper slag in mixtures on the compressive strength of engineering brick. Table 5 shows the findings of compressive strength test for 0%, 20%, 40% and 60% of pure copper slag as sand replacement, while Table 6 shows the results for the compressive strength test for 20%, 40% and 60% of spent copper slag as sand replacement.

Table 5: Compressive strength of cement-sand bricks using PCS

Table 6: Compressive strength of cement-sand bricks using SCS

Fig. 5: Comparison of compressive strength of PCS and SCS

bricks at day 28

From Fig. 5, the compressive strength of the bricks decrease when the amount of copper slag was increased. The 20% of pure copper slag and spent copper slag bricks achieved the optimum compressive strength of 50 N/mm2. 3.4 Density The result for density of all mixtures with difference proportions of pure copper slag and spent copper slag shown in Table 7 and Table 8 respectively. The density of cement-sand brick slightly increased as

Comparison Of Engineering Properties Between Pure Copper Slag Brick And Spent Copper Slag Brick

Proceedings of TheIRES 3rd International Conference, Dubai, UAE, 4th July 2015, ISBN: 978-93-85465-46-8

8

spent copper slag content was increased. The density of cement-sand brick was increased by almost 13.4% for mixture of replacement 60% PCS as fine aggregates, due to the fact that copper slag has higher specific gravity compared to the SCS and river sand. Fig. 6 illustrates the differences of density for PCS and SCS bricks.

Table 7: Density 0f cement-sand bricks using PCS

Table 8: Density 0f cement-sand bricks using SCS

Fig 6. Comparison of density of PCS and SCS bricks

3.5 Water Absorption of Brick Water absorption of brick is a very crucial property. Higher water absorption signifies that the brick have high porosity. The water absorption of the cement-sand brick using PCS and SCS is shown in Table 9 and Table 10 respectively.

Table 9: Water absorption of cement-sand bricks using pure copper slag

Table 10: Water absorption of cement-sand bricks using spent

copper slag

Fig. 10: Comparison of water absorption of pure copper slag and

spent copper slag Based on BS EN 771-1, the water absorption of engineering brick class A should less than 4.5%, and class B should less than 7%. Water absorption of PCS bricks and SCS bricks for every percentage replacement are lower than 7%. CONCLUSION This paper presented a research study on the comparison of engineering properties of pure copper slag and spent copper slag as fine aggregates

Comparison Of Engineering Properties Between Pure Copper Slag Brick And Spent Copper Slag Brick

Proceedings of TheIRES 3rd International Conference, Dubai, UAE, 4th July 2015, ISBN: 978-93-85465-46-8

9

replacement in making cement-sand brick. The following conclusions can be drawn from the work: 1) In general, the conjunction of copper slag as replacement of fine aggregates to increase the engineering properties of compressive strength may be due to the physical characteristics of copper slag and the stronger bond between copper slag and the cement paste matrix. However, further experimental works should be done in this consideration. 2) With addition of 20% copper slag as replacement of fine aggregates into cement-sand brick mixture, the compressive strength increased up to 9.3% compared to the control mixture on day 28. 3) 40% and 60% copper slag replacement gave lower compressive strength value compared to 20% copper slag replacement, which was almost 4.08% lower than the strength of control mixture. 4) 20% Pure Copper Slag gives higher compressive strength compared to Spent Copper Slag. REFERENCES [1] Brindha. D, Baskaran.T and Nagan.S. (2010). “Assessment of

Corrosion and Durability Characteristics of Copper Slag Admixed Concrete”, International Journal of Civil and Structural Engineering, vol.1, no.2. pp. 194, 208.

[2] Caijun S., Christian M., Behnood A. (2008) Utilization of copper slag in cement and concrete. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, v. 52, n. 10, p. 1115-1120, 2008.

[3] Chavan. R.R., Kulkarni D.B., (2013) Performance of copper slag on strength properties as partial replace of fine aggregate in concrete mix design .International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Studies , E-ISSN2249–8974 , 1( Accessed: 01st July 2014)

[4] FHWA (2010). User Guidelines for Waste and Byproduct Materials in Pavement Construction. Publication Number: FHWA-RD-97-148. Retrieved in February 2015 from http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publication/research/infrastructure/structure/97148/st3.cfm

[5] Gorai, B., Jana, R.K., and Premchand, M. (2003). Characteristics and Utilization of Copper Slag -A Review. Resources Conservation and Recycling, 39, 299-313.

[6] Khalifa S. Al-Jabri, Makoto Hisada, Salem K. Al-Oraimi, Abdullah H. Al-Saidy (2009). “Copper slag as sand replacement for high performance concrete” Cement & Concrete Composites 31 pp 483 – 488. 2009

[7] Lavanya.C, Sreerama Rao. A, Darga Kumar. N (2011). A REVIEW ON UTILIZATION OF COPPER SLAG IN GEOTECHNICAL APPLICATIONS, Available at:http://gndec.ac.in/~igs/ldh/conf/2011/articles/Theme%20-%20H%2025.pdf (Accessed: 26th June 2014).

[8] Nataraja, M.C., Chandan, G. N. and Rajeeth T. J. (2014) Concrete Mix Design using Copper Slag as Fine Aggregate. International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET), [online] 5(9). Available at: http://www.iaeme.com [Accessed 2 Aug. 2014].

[9] Salmaliza Salleh, Md Ghazaly Shaaban, Hilmi B. Mahmud, J. Kang, and K. T. Looi, "Production of Bricks from Shipyard Repair and Maintenance Hazardous Waste," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 52-55, 2014.

[10] Teik-Thye Lim, and Chu J. (2006) Assessment of the use of spent copper slag for land reclamation. Available at: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jian_Chu2/publication/7280313_Assessment_of_the_use_of_spent_copper_slag_for_land_reclamation.pdf (Accessed: 16 September 2014)

[11] MS 522: Part 1: 1989. Malaysian Standard Specification for Ordinary Portland cement.

[12] Malaysia: Department of Standards Malaysia; 2007. [13] BS 882:1992. Specification for aggregates. British Standards

Institution; 1992. [14] BS EN 771-1. European Standard Specification for clay

masonry units. [15] London (UK): British Standards Institution; 2011. [16] BS Part 116: 1983. Testing Concrete and determination of

compressive strength. British Standards Institution; 2004.