LIGHT WEIGHT MATERIALS BASED ON SLAGS FROM PRODUCTION OF IRON AND STEEL

Production of iron and steel is a source of wide range of co-products and wastes, whereas slags belong to the most important co-products with respect to volume of their production. For most of the metallurgical slags their appropriate utilization still haven't been found and are deposited on landfills. Ceramic industry is the main branch, where metallurgical slags are successfully employed. This paper deals with preparation of low bulk density materials using slags from iron and steel production. Successful utilization of slags for preparation of solid porous structures is related to their latent hydraulic properties. Latent hydraulic abilities of steel slags are activated by addition of water glass solution. Enhanced porosity of final products is ensured by addition of Al powder, which reacts in alkali environment with synchronous evolution of hydrogen. Evolved hydrogen reduces bulk density of hydrated mixtures. Successful preparation of porous materials by above mentioned procedure is strongly dependent on harmonization of the processes of hydrogen development and own process of hydration of alkali activated mixture. In present work mechanical properties and bulk densities of resulting products are related to the chemical and phase composition of raw materials, influence of water coefficient is also discussed. The possible modification of properties of the prepared light weight samples after the addition power station fly ash is also outlined. Laboratory tests confirmed that enhanced latent hydraulic properties shows fast cooled steel slags. It was observed that light weight materials can be prepared using metallurgy slags and their parameters are comparable to those parameters observed for light weight materials produced using conventional procedures.