A Laboratory Study on the Shear Behavior of Mixtures of Coal Wash and Steel Furnace Slag as Potential Structural Fill

The accumulation of industrial waste materials (e.g., coal wash and steel furnace slag) has become a critical environmental problem in Australia in recent years. The possible re-use of these types of materials as structural fill for transport embankments and land reclamation is one of the preferred options from a waste management perspective. Consequently, an experimental testing program was undertaken using the triaxial apparatus to evaluate the shear behavior of compacted mixtures of coal wash (CW) and steel furnace slag (SFS). The effect of varying the confining pressure and the percentage of coal wash on the isotropic compression line, the stress-strain behavior, and particle degradation during drained shearing was evaluated. The percentage of coal wash was found to influence the shearing behavior of the CW-SFS mixtures. When the content of coal wash increased, the shear strength of the CW-SFS mixtures decreased and the axial strain corresponding to the peak stress ratio increased. Moreover, the incidence of particle breakage increased for those mixtures with a higher CW content due to the low particle strength of CW. This paper also provided a non-linear strength envelope and a corresponding empirical equation to capture the shear strength of CW-SFS mixtures.