Suitability of Stabilized Copper Slag and Fly Ash Mix for Road Construction

Authors: Shubham Raj; A.K. Rai, Vasant G. Havanagi

Purpose – Industrial wastes such as copper slag and fly ash are being generated in tons every year and disposed mainly by land fillings, resulting in wastage of useful land. Copper slag in itself is a granular cohesionless sand like material while fly ash is highly pozzolanic. In the present paper, copper slag and fly ash mixes with cement as stabilizer are investigated for their proper use in road construction.
Design/methodology/approach – Different trial mixes of copper slag and fly ash were tested for obtaining the optimum mix having maximum dry density.

Cylindrical specimens were prepared using optimum mix with different proportion of cement (3%, 6% and 9%) and cured for period of 7 days, 14 days and 28 days in desiccator. Several tests such as Proctor test, unconfined compressive strength test, splitting tensile strength test and soaked CBR test were carried out.
Findings – After analyzing the variation of test results with varying cement content and curing period, maximum compressive strength of 10 MPa and maximum tensile strength of 1.5 MPa was found for specimen having 9% cement content cured for a period of 28 days. It was concluded that copper slag and fly ash when mixed in optimum proportion and stabilized with 6% and 9% cement, can be effectively used as granular material in sub base and base layer of road pavement.

Originality/value – A typical flexible pavement section was designed and checked using IITPAVE software which gave desired results. This research may add a value in the areas of pavement design, waste utilization, et cetera.

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