Use of copper slag in concrete production – a sustainable solution for solid waste management

In India, the construction activities are increasing day by day and as a result, the natural sand has become scare and costly material. To meet this increase in demand one has to go for excessive mining of river bed and that leads to natural imbalance. Therefore reducing the consumption of natural sand in construction is a major issue considering both the environment and economic issues. To balance the demand one has to go for sustainable unconventional innovative materials and particularly the industrial by products where there mass disposal and solid waste management is the problem. Copper slag is one of the industrial by-product obtained during manufacture of copper. This paper presents the experimental results on concrete made of copper slag. Mechanical properties like compressive strength, abrasion resistance and durability properties like acid resistance were carried out. The test results shows the concrete containing copper slag as fine aggregate has good strength and properties and the copper slag replacement level can be limited to 40-60% (by weight). (paper)