An Experimental Investigation on Use of Secondary Aluminium Dross in Cement Concrete

Abstract

In the production of Aluminium production, Aluminium dross is a by-product. At present, dross is processed in rotary kilns to recover the Aluminium. Aluminium dross in the form of salt cake is sent to landfills, although it is sealed to prevent from leaching. Leaching of Aluminium dross could harm the environment as it contains fluorides and other salts. Furthermore, much energy is consumed to recover the Aluminium from the dross, this energy can be saved if the dross could be diverted and utilized as an engineering material.

The objective of present work is to utilize the Aluminium dross in the natural cycle (closed loop) by using it as an engineered material and to investigate the mechanical properties of new concrete type obtained by adding Aluminium dross which is an impure Aluminium mixture obtained from metals melting and mixing with flux. The main advantage of this type of concrete over the conventional ones is the reduction in the quantity of raw materials.

5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 30 % by weight of cement is being replaced by dross. Then using this concrete, concrete cubes are casted. The casted cubes are tested for compressive strength for 3 days, 7days, 28 days. It is found that 7 days compressive strength has been increased when compared with 3 days compressive strength for 5% replacement. But for rest of the replacements (10%, 15%, 20%& 30%), 7 days compressive strength has been decreased when compared with 3 days compressive strength. Hence, 5% replacement is preferable.

The results of this study indicate that Aluminium dross can be used as an ingredient up to 5% to improve expanded concrete/mortar