Construction and Building Materials 23 (2009) 742–747

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Construction and Building Materials

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Utilization of weathered basic oxygen furnace slag in the production

of hydraulic road binders
P.-Y. Mahieux *, J.-E. Aubert, G. Escadeillas
Université de Toulouse, UPS, INSA, LMDC (Laboratoire Matériaux et Durabilité des Constructions), 135, Avenue de Rangueil, F-31 077 Toulouse cedex 4, France

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper deals with the use of a weathered basic oxygen furnace (BOF) slag as a main constituent in
Received 7 June 2007 hydraulic road binder. The original idea of this study was to associate the BOF slag with ground granu-
Received in revised form 21 February 2008 lated blast furnace slag (GGBFS). The free lime contained in BOF slag activated the GGBFS. Small amounts
Accepted 25 February 2008
of catalyst were added to the mixtures in order to accelerate the setting of this ternary blended binder.
Available online 10 April 2008
Before studying the characteristics and the influence of the proportion of each constituent, the chemical,
mineralogical and physical characteristics of BOF slag were analyzed. X-ray diffraction showed that the
main minerals present were calcium silicates (bC2S and C3S), dicalcium ferrite (C2F), lime (CaO), a solid
Keywords:
Basic oxygen furnace slag (BOF slag, BS)
solution of magnesium iron oxide (MgOxFeOy), an alumino ferrite calcium phase (C4AF) and, due to the
Ground granulated blast furnace slag weathering, calcite (CaCO3) and portlandite (Ca(OH)2). The activity of BOF slag in cement-based mortars
(GGBFS) was evaluated and the results show that BOF slag has little hydraulic activity and apparently no pozzo-
Characterization lanic properties. These results were confirmed by XRD on hydrated BOF slag. Only CaO, C3S and C4AF react
Slag index activity with water and, as the C3S and C4AF contents were relatively low, the hydraulicity of the BOF slag under
Hydraulic road binder study was low. However, BOF slag contains 7% of Ca(OH)2 and, in spite of the weathering, still 5% of CaO.
The production of a ternary blended binder containing a mixture of BOF slag, GGBFS and catalyst was a
success. The optimization of the binder composition showed that it was possible to produce an HRB10
(the compressive strength of standardized mortars higher than 10 MPa at 56 days) by mixing 52.5% of
GGBFS, 42.5% of BOF slag and 5% of catalyst. Moreover, the stability study showed that there was no prob-
lem of expansion with such a binder.
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
BOF slag is a by-product of the conversion of pig iron to steel in a
basic oxygen furnace (BOF). The principle of the basic oxygen fur-
nace is to blow oxygen and neutral gas into the furnace to decrease
carbon contents. Moreover, during the conversion of pig iron, lime
and dolomite are added in the converter. Lime is used to fix the sil-
icon and phosphorous contained in pig iron and dolomite is added
to protect the refractory brick. Charging steel scrap ensures the
thermal balance of the bath since all the reactions are exothermic.
At the end of the conversion, BOF slag is separated from steel by
densimetric separation. World steel production in 2005 was
1130 million tons. In France, the production was 12.2 million tons.
As 100–200 kg of BOF slag is produced per ton of steel, depending
on the raw material used, 1.2 million tons were produced in 2005
alone.
For a long time, substantial amounts of BOF slag have simply
been dumped. To avoid the land filling of these residues, much re-
search has been undertaken on the reutilization of BOF slag in var-
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 561 55 99 26; fax: +33 561 55 99 49.
E-mail address: pierre-yves.mahieux@insa-toulouse.fr (P.-Y. Mahieux).
ious ways. Monshi and Asgarani [1] have studied the use of BOF
slag as a raw material for clinker manufacture. Their principal idea
is to mix BOF slag and ground granulated blast furnace slag with
conventional limestone and to fire the mixture in a rotary kiln at
about 1350 °C for 1 h to form clinker.
Other research has concerned the utilization of BOF slag as a
mineral admixture in cement. Shi et al. [2] have studied that BOF
slag cement composed mainly of steel slag, ground granulated
blast furnace slag and Portland cement. They explain that 40% of
BOF slag production in China is used in BOF slag cement. This
can be used for general construction but it has the disadvantage
of a longer setting time and lower early compressive strength than
Portland cement. Ionescu et al. [3] specify that BOF slag must be
used as a minority additive in Portland cement because its chemi-
cal and mineralogical composition causes subsequent problems
(delay in setting and expansion, in particular).
Another way to reuse BOF slag is the amendment of soil in agri-
culture. This technique is used to neutralize soil acidity, stabilize
soil structure and increase plant resistance [4].
The main utilization of BOF slag is as aggregate in road con-
struction. This use is interesting because road construction re-
quires large amounts of materials. Moreover, some of the

0950-0618/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2008.02.015
 P.-Y. Mahieux et al. / Construction and Building Materials 23 (2009) 742–747
characteristics of BOF slag make it particularly suitable for this uti-
lization. For example, Asi has shown that BOF slag has superior
skid and wear resistance compared to natural aggregates [5]. The
main problem with such utilization is the stability of the material.
In the last few years, the use of BOF slag in road construction has
been restricted because of the undesirable expansion of the slag
aggregate. This expansion has been attributed to the hydration of
free lime and magnesium oxides contained in BOF slag [6,7]. The
reaction leads to local accumulation of the hydrates and to an in-
crease of the volume of voids [8]. Several studies found in the lit-
erature show that steel slag reaches sufficient stability to be
employed in road construction after 6 months to 1 year of storage
[9,10].
Today, it is a common practice to weather BOF slag in the aim of
stabilizing it and using it as aggregate in road construction. The
weathering is obtained by storing the crushed BOF slag outdoors.
The idea of the study presented in this article was to use a
weathered BOF slag rich in free lime to activate ground granulated
blast furnace slag (GGBFS) in order to obtain a hydraulic road bin-
der. GGBFS is a by-product of the cast iron industry, formed by the
combination of the earthy constituents of iron ore with limestone
flux. After treatment, it forms a fine, almost noncrystalline, glassy
substance known as granulated slag, having latent hydraulic prop-
erties [11]. It must be activated with a basic component [12,13]
such as ordinary Portland cement and lime. So, it was decided to
add a small proportion of catalyst (about 5%) to the mixture be-
cause previous studies had shown that the addition of catalyst
accelerated the setting of this binder.
This paper deals with the study of this ternary blended binder.
Before studying the characteristics and the influence of the propor-
tion of each constituent, the chemical, mineralogical and physical
characteristics of BOF slag were analyzed. The activity of BOF slag
in cement mortars is considered as an important characteristic and
was studied on mortars and pastes. Then, different compositions of
the ternary blended binder were studied in order to evaluate the
influence of each constituent on the properties of this binder, in
particular on the setting time and compressive strength of mortars.
2. Experiment
2.1. Materials
The BOF slag and the GGBFS used in this study came from the
same industrial plant. After conversion, the liquid form of the
BOF slag under study was poured into a pit where it cooled slowly
and solidified into a crystalline form. After cooling, it was sifted
and crushed, then weathered for a few months. The BOF slag activ-
ity was determined using an Ordinary Portland Cement (CEM I
52.5R).
2.2. Chemical, physical and mineralogical characterization procedures
Specific surface area was measured by the Blaine test. This test
was carried out according to EN standard 196-6 [14]. The granulo-
metric distribution was determined by sieve analysis of a sample of
BOF slag between 40 lm and 1250 lm. Stability was determined by
the Le Chatelier test for measuring the risk of late expansion due to
the hydration of magnesium and/or free calcium oxides. This test
was carried out according to EN standard 196-3 [15]. The absolute
density was determined by a hydrostatic weighing of a powder
sample in a non-reactive liquid.
Major oxide composition was estimated on the basis of the
macro elemental analysis carried out on digested samples by
inductively coupled plasma–atomic emission spectrometry (ICP–
AES) and the minor element composition by inductively coupled
743
plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP–MS). The loss on ignition (calcina-
tion at 1000 °C) was also measured according to standard EN 196-2
[16]. The calcite (CaCO3) content was determined from the CO2 vol-
ume measured during acidic dissolution. The free lime was found
by an acidimetric method, an alternative to the Franke method,
according to standard EN 1744-1 (18.4: determination of free lime
by acidimetry (alternative method)) [17]. The principle is to extract
free lime by means of acetoacetate from ethyl by boiling. The ex-
tract is titrated using a hydrochloric standard solution of acid
0.2 mol/l. The sulfate (SO3) content was measured by gravimetry
of barium sulfate according to EN standard 196-2. The crystalline
phases were identified using a Siemens D5000 powder X-ray Dif-
fractometer equipped with a monochromator using a Ka
(k = 1.789 Å) cobalt anticathode.
In this article, the notation used for mineralogical characteriza-
tion refers to the chemical formulae commonly used in cement
chemistry. The abbreviations most widely used are given in Table 1.
2.3. Mortars
2.3.1. Procedures
The 4  4  16 cm3 mortar bars were prepared according to
standard EN 196-1 [18]. The mortars were composed of one part
binder by mass for three parts of sand and of a half part of water.
The term ‘‘binder” will be used for the cement, for the cement and
BOF slag (BS) mixtures and for the ternary blended binder. The
samples were cured in an air-conditioned room at 20 °C for 24–
72 h, according to the reactivity of the binders used, and then
demoulded and cured in water at 20 °C until they reached the de-
sired age. Each formulation was tested in compression for different
hydration times (7, 28 and 90 days).
2.3.2. Compositions
2.3.2.1. BOF slag activity index. As no standard exists for the deter-
mination of the activity of BOF slag in cement-based materials, it
was decided to apply the standards commonly used for standard-
ized mineral admixtures. Two types of activity indexes exist. The
first concerns ground granulated blast furnace slag according to
standard NF P 18-506 [19]. The slag activity index ‘‘h” is the per-
centage ratio of the average compressive strength of slag and ce-
ment (50–50%) mortar bars to the average compressive strength
of reference cement mortar bars at a designated age, expressed
as: percent = ((SP/P)  100), where SP = average compressive
strength of slag reference cement mortar cubes and P = average
compressive strength of reference cement mortar cubes. The sec-
ond activity index is used for coal fly ashes and limestone addi-
tions. The standard NF EN 450-1 [20] and standard NF P 18-508
[21] define the activity index ‘‘i” as the percentage ratio of the aver-
age compressive strength of mineral admixtures and cement (25–
75%) mortar bars to the average compressive strength of reference
cement mortar bars at a designated age, expressed as: per-
cent = ((SP/P)  100), where SP = average compressive strength of
slag reference cement mortar cubes and P = average compressive
strength of reference cement mortar cubes.
Based on these two definitions, the three compositions pre-
sented in Table 2 were prepared in order to measure the compres-
sive strength at 7, 28 and 90 days.
Table 1
Chemical formulae in cement chemistry
Oxides CaO SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3
Abbreviations C S A F
744 P.-Y. Mahieux et al. / Construction and Building Materials 23 (2009) 742–747

Table 2 100
Compositions of mortars used for determination of BOF slag activity index 315 630 800 1250
90 250
200
Compositions Ordinary portland cement (OPC) (%) BOF slag (BS) (%)
80
OPC–0% BS 100 0
70 125
OPC–25% BS 75 25

Passing %
OPC–50% BS 50 50 60 100
50
80
40

Table 3 30
Compositions of ternary blended binder mortars 40
20

Compositions BS (%) GGBFS (%) BS/GGBFS ratio 10

GGBFS–15%BS 15 80 0.2 0
GGBFS–25%BS 25 70 0.4 40 100 200 400 800 1000
GGBFS–52.5%BS 42.5 52.5 0.8 Particle size (µm)
GGBFS–42.5%BS 52.5 42.5 1.2
GGBFS–72.5%BS 72.5 22.5 3.2 Fig. 1. Particle size distribution of BOF slag.

Table 4
Compositions of ternary blended binder mortars
Compositions BS (%) GGBFS (%)
GGBFS–BS 45 55
GGBFS–BS-5%C 42.5 52.5
GGBFS–BS-10%C 40 50
2.3.2.2. Ternary blended binder. The study of the various composi-
tions of the ternary blended binder mortars had two objectives.
The first was the evaluation of the influence of the BS/GGBFS ratio
on the compressive strength. Five compositions were prepared by
keeping the quantity of catalyst constant (5%) and varying the pro-
portion of BS and GGBFS. These compositions are presented in Ta-
ble 3.
The second objective was the evaluation of the influence of the
quantity of catalyst on the compressive strength and the setting
time of mortars. For this part of the study, the BS/GGBFS ratio
was kept equal to 0.8 and three different amounts of catalyst (C)
were considered: 0%, 5% and 10%. The three compositions are given
in Table 4.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Physical, chemical and mineralogical characteristics of weathered
BOF slag
The specific gravity of the BOF slag was 3300 kg/m3. This result
was high because of the significant presence of iron oxides. Specific
surface area was 2000 cm2/g. This specific surface area is low but
the value is representative of the particle size distribution
(D50 = 80 lm). The granulometric distribution is shown in Fig. 1
and we observed that 74% of the particles were larger than
40 lm in diameter.
The chemical composition is shown in Table 5. The main com-
ponents in BOF slag are calcium, iron, silicon and magnesium oxi-
des. Compared with ground granulated blast furnace slag [22], BOF
slag contains less aluminum oxide (2%). Calcium and iron oxides
compose nearly 70% of BOF slag.
The weathering of the BOF slag was not complete and 5% of free
lime remained (this proportion was measured by an acidimetric
test). The lime reacted only partially because the granulometric
C (%) distribution of the BOF slag was too coarse in comparison with
0 the average size of the free lime particles. So, some of the lime par-
5 ticles were not accessible to water. Hornain et al. [23] state that
10 free lime is disseminated in small particles (10–30 lm) in BOF slag.
So, the fineness of the BOF slag under study (74% > 40 lm) was not
sufficient to allow free lime to hydrate completely. The percentage
of portlandite was 7%, deduced from the loss on ignition and the
calcimetry. The percentage of calcite, measured by acidic dissolu-
tion, was 5%.
The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of BOF slag is shown in
Fig. 2.
Four significant phases can be clearly observed: calcium sili-
cates (bC2S and C3S), dicalcium ferrite (C2F) and a solid solution
of magnesium iron oxide (MgOxFeOy). Moreover, the XRD pattern
shows clear peaks of portlandite (Ca(OH)2), calcite (CaCO3) and free
lime (CaO). It is possible to distinguish one peak of ferrite oxide
(Fe3O4) and, according to Reddy et al. [24], the presence of this
mineral is probably due to the oxidation of the entrapped steel,
caused by water quenching. Finally, microprobe analysis (not given
in the present paper) showed the presence of alumino ferrite cal-
cium phases (C4AF). This phase was not visible by XRD because
its peaks overlap those of the dicalcium ferrite (C2F).
The mineralogical composition of the BOF slag under study is in
accordance with other studies found in the literature [6,25]. How-
ever, in contrast with some of them [9,26,27], there was no magne-
sium oxide visible in our XRD pattern. All the magnesium oxides
were combined with iron oxides to form a solid solution of magne-
sium iron oxide (MgOxFeOy).
The main comment concerning the mineralogical characteriza-
tion is that BOF slag contains phases similar to those of ordinary
Portland cement such as calcium silicates (bC2S and C3S) and fer-
rite aluminum oxide. Alite (C3S) is the major constituent of ordin-
ary Portland cement, which forms between 50% and 70%. Belite
(bC2S), largely present as the b polymorph, makes up 15–30% and
ferrite 5–15% [28]. It is often difficult to distinguish the peaks of
bC2S and C3S by XRD because some of them overlap. Two peaks

Table 5
Chemical composition of BOF slag and GGBFS

Materials Component oxides (mass %) Loss on ignition % Total

CaO SiO2 Fe2O3 Al2O3 MgO MnO Na2O K2O P2O5 TiO2 SO3
BS 47.5 11.8 22.6 2.0 6.3 1.9 0.2 0.1 2.7 0.5 0.2 3.6 99.4
GGBFS 39.6 36.9 0.3 9.0 7.5 0.2 0.3 0.4 <0.1 0.4 1.1 95.8
 P.-Y. Mahieux et al. / Construction and Building Materials 23 (2009) 742–747 745

Caption: Caption: 70
600 1: 040733 Portlandite [Ca(OH) ] 5: 310301 Calcium silicate [Ca3SiO5]

Compressivestrength (MPa)
2 2 PC - 0%BS
6: 050586 Calcite [CaCO3] 60
2: 471744 Srebrodolskite [Ca2Fe2O5] 4
5 7: 371497 Lime [CaO]
500 3: 772369 Magnesium iron oxide 50
[(MgO)0,239 (FeO)0,761] 4 8: 190629 Magnetite [FeFe2O4]
3 PC - 25%BS
Intensity (counts)

5
4: 330302 Larnite [Ca2SiO4] 40
400 2

1 30
2
2 PC - 50%BS
300 4 4 20
4 7
1 3 5 2
5 5 10
2 1
200 6
4 7
1 2
8 4 4 0
2 4 4 2 4 5
2 45 2 5 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
100 4 2 4 Days
5

Fig. 3. Variation of compressive strength of slag-cement binder according to time.

0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70
2°Θ Co Kα

Fig. 2. XRD pattern of BOF slag. Table 6

SAI according to standard NF P 18-506, EN 450-1

Age SAI S.A.I ‘‘h” according to S.A.I. S.A.I ‘‘h” according to

are characteristic of each mineral: the peak at d = 2.8877 Å ‘‘h” standard NF P 18-506 (%) ‘‘i” (%) standard EN 450-1 (%)
(2h = 36.23°, 21%, 33-0302) for bC2S and the peak at d = 1.7760 Å (%)
(2h = 60.48°, 65%, 31-0301) for C3S. By comparing the two refer- 7 days 31 – 67 –
ence cards and peak intensities, it is possible to conclude that the 28 days 40 60 73 75
proportion of C3S contained in BOF slag is much lower than that 90 days – – 71 85

of bC2S. It is interesting to note that no cC2S is detectable by

XRD. According to Lea [29], this is not conventional because beta
dicalcium silicate changes to gamma dicalcium silicate with slow 115% for one type of GGBFS. However, BOF activity index ‘‘i” at 28
cooling below 675 °C. However, the beta form can be stabilized days is near that recommended for coal fly ashes. But for coal fly
at ambient temperature by the presence of impurities like boric ashes, the index remains constant between 28 and 90 days con-
oxide, phosphorus pentoxide and magnesia. In this BOF slag, the firming that no pozzolanic reactions occur during this period. Fi-
dicalcium silicate was in a beta form that was probably due to nally, it is possible to compare the results obtained for BOF slag
the presence of magnesium and phosphorus as shown in the chem- with a standardized mineral addition considered as non-hydraulic
ical composition. and non-pozzolanic like, for example, limestone. In this case, the
In conclusion, although the BOF slag was weathered, it still con- BOF slag activity index ‘‘i” is higher than the limit value recom-
tained potential hydraulic phases similar to those contained in mended for this addition (68%).
Portland clinker. As already mentioned in the case of lime, the These results point to two significant conclusions. The first is
weathering was not complete. It was possible to estimate the pro- that no pozzolanic reaction can be observed with BOF slag. More-
portion of each mineral using the chemical composition of BOF over, although the mineralogical characterization showed that
slag. The proportion of calcium silicate was between 35% and BOF slag could have hydraulic properties, its activity in cement-
40% and that of ferrite aluminum oxide was about 5%. These pro- based materials was relatively weak. To better understand this
portions are smaller than those in clinker but, with such a miner- weak activity, a paste was prepared by mixing BOF slag and water
alogical composition, this BOF slag probably had hydraulic activity. and studied by XRD after 28 days of hydration. The poor hydraulic-
ity of BOF slag was confirmed because no setting and no hardening
3.2. Activity of a BOF slag in cement-based materials of this paste was observed. The XRD pattern of the hydrated paste
is presented in Fig. 4.
Mortars in which various proportions of cement were replaced
by BOF slag were prepared so as to study the influence of BOF slag
on the compressive strength of cement-based materials and to
confirm whether this slag had hydraulic activity as concluded in Caption:
Caption:
the previous part. It is interesting to note that the replacement of 1: 040733 Portlandite [Ca(OH)2]
4: 371497 Lime [CaO]
600 2: 330302 Larnite [Ca2SiO4]
a part of the cement by BOF slag did not modify the consistency 2 5: 450572 Calcium Aluminum iron
3: 310301 Calcium silicate [Ca3SiO 5] 3 oxide carbonate hydroxide hydrate
of the mortars, whatever be the rate of replacement of the cement. 500 1 [Ca8Al2Fe12CO3(OH)222H2O]
Fig. 3 shows the development of compressive strength in the
Intensity (counts)

1
slag-blended mortars with the cement replacement by BOF slag 400 2 2
3
at 7, 28 and 90 days.
The replacement of cement by BOF slag does not modify the 300 2

development of hardening but decreases the compressive strength. 3

2
5
It can be observed that, from 28 days, the evolution is asymptotic. 200 2 4
3 1 1 1
5 4 2
2 4
This result indicates the absence of pozzolanic reaction between 28 5 2 23
2
2 32
and 90 days. 100 3

It was possible to calculate the slag activity indexes (S.A.I.). The

0
values of these indexes are reported in Table 6 and compared with 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70
reference values for GGBFS and coal fly ash. At 28 days, BOF slag 2°Θ Co Kα
activity index ‘‘h” is very weak in comparison with the limiting va-
lue S.A.I. of the GGBFS. Pal et al. [11] showed that S.A.I. could reach Fig. 4. XRD pattern of BOF slag after 28 days of hydration.
746 P.-Y. Mahieux et al. / Construction and Building Materials 23 (2009) 742–747
This XRD pattern is similar to the XRD pattern of anhydrous BOF
slag, confirming once again the poor hydraulicity of BOF slag com-
pared with clinker, for example. The main reaction observed is the
partial hydration of free lime to form portlandite. Only one new
mineral appears after hydration, calcium aluminum hydrate. This
mineral results from the hydration of the alumino ferrite calcium
phase contained in BOF slag. The last reactive mineral is C3S as
shown by the disappearance of the characteristic peak at
d = 1.7760 Å (2h = 60.484, 65%, 31-0301). All other minerals con-
tained in BOF slag are inert and, in particular, bC2S. This result is
in opposition to the traditional knowledge on this mineral. Indeed,
it is considered to be hydraulic in clinker, the gamma form being
the only dicalcium silicate known to be inert. The main hypothesis
that could explain this phenomenon is the presence of impurities
in bC2S, which could prevent the hydration of this mineral but fur-
ther experiments are necessary to confirm this hypothesis. The
main results of this part show that BOF slag has a weak hydraulic
activity and apparently no pozzolanic properties. So, it could be
interesting to take advantage of the presence of calcium oxides
contained in BOF slag to use it for activating GGBFS with a view
to producing a hydraulic road binder.
3.3. Ternary blended binder: BOF slag, GGBFS and catalyst
GGBFS has a latent hydraulic property and it is usually used in
cementitious binder. Cement and different activators are used to
activate the material. But its hydraulic activity depends mainly
on its chemical composition and glassy phase content [26]. On
the subject of activation, the results of Douglas et al. [30] concern-
ing alkali activation show that the compressive strength develop-
ment of GGBFS can be enhanced when it is activated. Moreover,
alkali activation is not the only solution. Regourd [31] presents dif-
ferent types of activation which can be used to increase the
hydraulic capacity of GGBFS. In this study, BOF slag and catalyst
were used with GGBFS in a ternary blend binder. First, five compo-
sitions were prepared to evaluate the influence of BOF slag on com-
pressive strength with a constant amount of catalyst (5%). Then, for
the most efficient mixture, three compositions were prepared to
evaluate the influence of catalyst on compressive strength with a
constant BS/GGBFS ratio of 0.8. The results of compressive strength
measured at 7 and 28 days are presented in Table 7.
The first comment concerning all these mixtures is that their
setting times are much longer than that of ordinary Portland ce-
ment. The fresh mortar bars can be demoulded only after two days.
Table 7 shows that compressive strength depends on the GGBFS/BS
Table 7
Compressive strength of ternary blended binder
Compositions Compressive strength Compressive strength
at 7 days (MPa) at 28 days (MPa)
Influence of GGBFS– 5 9
GGBFS/BS 15%BS
ratio GGBFS– 5 11
25%BS
GGBFS– 4 11
42.5%BS
GGBFS– 2 8
52.5%BS
GGBFS– 0 5
72.5%BS
Influence of GGBFS– 2 6
catalyst 42.5%BS
content GGBFS– 4 11
42.5%BS–5%C
GGBFS– 2 7
42.5%BS –
10%C
Table 8
Results of the Le Chatelier test (stability test)
Sample A (cm) B (cm) C (cm) C–A (cm)
52.5%GGBFS–42.5%BS–5%C 1 2 2.5 2.5 0.5
2 1.2 2.3 2.3 1.1
ratio. The maximum value of the compressive strength is reached
for the mixture containing 42.5% of BOF slag. These results can
be explained as follows. GGBFS is much more reactive than BS
and so the compressive strength increases with the amount of
GGBFS contained in the mixtures. But, in parallel, GGBFS needs
the free lime contained in BS to react. So, the amount of free lime
(and consequently BS) has to be sufficient to activate the GGBFS
and this explains the decrease of compressive strength for the mix-
tures containing low proportions of BS. These results confirm those
of Gao et al. [32], who worked on the activation of GGBFS by var-
ious amounts of free lime. They showed that compressive strength
increased with the percentage of free lime with an optimum at 8%.
In the present study, the variations in compressive strength were
similar to the results obtained by Gao et al. It is possible to esti-
mate the amount of calcium oxide contained in BS (from portlan-
dite, free lime). For the optimal mixture (52.5%GGBFS–42.5%BS–
5%C), the amount of calcium oxide is 6.1%, which is close to the va-
lue obtained by Gao et al. However, as shown during the character-
ization, all the free lime contained in BS is not accessible to water
because the size of BS particles (74% > 40 lm) is much greater than
that of the inclusions of free lime (10–30 lm as shown by Hornain
et al. [24]). The fineness of the BS is not sufficient to allow free lime
to dissolve easily and to activate GGBFS efficiently. This hypothesis
is confirmed because, with a similar proportion of BOF slag (42.5%)
in a ternary blended binder, when particle sizes smaller than
40 lm are used, the compressive strength increases, becoming as
high as 19 MPa at 28 days. This result is very encouraging and
shows that it will be possible to increase the performance of such
ternary blended binder by increasing the fineness of the BOF slag.
A last comment concerns the influence of the amount of catalyst
contained in these ternary blended binders. The results in Table 7
show that the optimal proportion of catalyst is 5%. Previous studies
not presented here have shown that the setting time of the mix-
tures is much longer if no catalyst is added. Moreover, the present
results show that the lack of catalyst leads to a significant reduc-
tion of compressive strength at 28 days. Finally, the results demon-
strate that it is not necessary to add a greater proportion of catalyst
than 5%, which is interesting from an economic point of view (the
cost of catalyst being much higher than that of the other
constituents).
One point remains to be verified. The main problem when BOF
slags are used is the swelling of this material due to the hydration
of free lime. It is therefore necessary to verify that the ternary
blended binders are not expansive. The stability of the optimal
mixture (52.5%GGBFS–42.5%BS–5%C) was determined using the
Le Chatelier test and the results are presented in Table 8.
These results are lower that the limits fixed by the French stan-
dard NF P 15-108 (3 cm) and so the optimal ternary blended binder
(52.5%GGBFS–42.5%BS–5%C) can be considered qualified regarding
the stability test.
4. Conclusions
The main aim of the work presented in this paper was to deter-
mine whether a weathered BOF slag could be used as a main con-
stituent in hydraulic road binder. To better understand the
reactions that occurred during the hydration of this material and
to choose the best manner of using it, the characteristics were
 P.-Y. Mahieux et al. / Construction and Building Materials 23 (2009) 742–747
thoroughly investigated. X-ray diffraction showed that the main
minerals present in BOF slag were calcium silicates (bC2S and
C3S), dicalcium ferrite (C2F), calcite (CaCO3), portlandite (Ca(OH)2),
lime (CaO), a solid solution of magnesium iron oxide (MgOxFeOy)
and an alumino ferrite calcium phase (C4AF). The activity of BOF
slag in cement-based mortars was evaluated and the results show
that BOF slag has a poor hydraulic activity and apparently no poz-
zolanic properties. These results were confirmed by XRD on hy-
drated BOF slag. Only CaO, C3S and C4AF react with water and, as
the C3S and C4AF contents were relatively low, the hydraulicity
of the BOF slag under study was poor. However, BOF slag contains
7% of Ca(OH)2 and, in spite of the weathering, retains 5% of CaO.
So, it appears interesting to use BOF slag to activate GGBFS with
a view to producing a hydraulic road binder. The production of a
ternary blended binder mixing BOF slag, GGBFS and catalyst was
a success. The optimization of the binder composition showed that
it was possible to produce an HRB10 (the compressive strength of
standardized mortars higher than 10 MPa at 28 days [33]) by mix-
ing 52.5% of GGBFS, 42.5% of BOF slag and 5% of catalyst. Moreover,
the stability study showed that there was no problem of expansion
with such a binder.
The characteristics of such a binder could still be ameliorated, in
particular, by playing on the characteristics of the BOF slag used. In
this paper, it has been demonstrated that the compressive strength
of the ternary blended binder can be increased by increasing the
fineness of BOF slag. Moreover, the use of fresh BOF slag could im-
prove the hydraulic properties of the ternary blended binder. Some
minerals contained in fresh BOF slag may have lost a part of their
hydraulic activity due to reactions with water during the weather-
ing. Experiments on this point are currently in progress.
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