PHYSICAL, CHEMICAL, MORPHOLOGICAL, AND STRENGTH CHARACTERISTISATION OF SECONDARY LEAD SLAG FOR POTENTIAL APPLICATION IN GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

摘要

The quantity of industrial solid wastes generated from every industry increases year by year. Generally, sludges, slags and fly ashes belong to this category. The optimum usage of these wastes reduces the land area used for dumping, transportation, maintenance expenses and also preserves the natural recourses. In order to address these issues and reduce the material consumption, in this work, three types of secondary lead slags were chosen and studied to determine the feasibility and select best among the three slags. The selection is based on the physical, mechanical, compaction and strength characteristics of the slags. The particle size distribution shows that the sand sized particles are predominantly present in all the slags. The slag showed that the Proctor's optimum water contents vary from 6 to 24% and maximum dry density varying from 1.5 to 2 g/cm(3). The angle of internal friction is found to be between 24 to 40 degrees C which is similar to sand. To determine its strength for pavement applications, California bearing ratio test was conducted and its values were up to 54%. The chemical composition of the slags were analysed using X-ray diffraction analysis and Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer. The morphology of the slags was studied using SEM micrographs. The leaching potential of the slags are determined for hazardous metals and the leachate extracted from the material is found to be harmless. All these results being favourable, it is concluded that this material can be used for pavement construction and other geotechnical applications.