Durability studies on ferrochrome slag as coarse aggregate in sustainable alkali activated slag/fly ash based concretes

Utilization of industrial byproducts in concrete reduces carbon footprint, associated with production of ordinary Portland cement (OPC), and also indirectly controls rapid depletion of natural resources in the form of natural coarse aggregate (NCA). This study reports the durability effect of alkali activated slag/fly ash concretes (AASFC) with ferrochrome slag (FCS) as coarse aggregate. Different AASFC mixtures were prepared with two control factors i.e., fly ash (FA) content (0, 25, and 50% by weight as a replacement to Ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS)), and FCS content (0, 50, and 100% by volume as a replacement to NCA). Total nine mixtures were examined for three different durability tests i.e., volume of permeable voids (VPV), acid resistant test, and sulphate resistant test. Further, embodied energy (EE), and Embodied carbon dioxide emission (ECO2e) were also utilized to optimize the AASFC mixtures by grey relational analysis (GRA). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used as a statistical tool to investigate the effect of FA, and FCS content on the overall durability and ecological performance of AASFC mixtures. Results show that, addition of FA increases the durability performance (in % age), and addition of FCS decreases the durability performance (in % age) in AASFC mixtures. AASFC mixture with composition of 50% GGBS, 50% FA, and 100% FCS is considered as most suitable mixture.