AN EVALUATION OF ELECTRIC ARC FURNACES DUST AS A REPLACEMENT FOR CEMENT IN MORTARS

The dust resulting from the steel producing by electric arc furnaces is categorized as a hazardous material by world environmental protection agency and, therefore, needs to be considered for recycling. The incorporation of electric arc furnaces dust (EAFD) in mortar is considered a good solution for this problem. In this research EAFD in as-received condition from the dust collection system of a carbon steelmaking factory was characterized and evaluated for their performance in mortar. EAFD characterization included the determination of mineralogical and chemical composition and physical characteristics. The performance of EAFD in mortar was evaluated through determination of the setting times with EAFD content up to 20%. Compressive and flexural strength of mortars were also studied by using compressive and flexural tests. The tests results indicated that the EAFD studied is shown to be suitable for use in mortar. However, the incorporation of elevated content of EAFD in the mixture can retard the setting times because of high zinc oxide content. Results also indicated that mortar containing 5% and 10% of EAFD presented similar compressive strength to the reference mortar at the age of 28 days and the mortar with 20% of EAFD, in the same age, presented around of 94% of the reference mortar. Flexural strength presented a similar behavior of compressive strength.