Scrap steel mill scale as river sand replacement in cement concrete: effect on durability characteristics

Million tons of steel mill scale produced as a waste product by the steelmaking firm are dumped beside scrap. These steel mill scale must be treated to protect the environment so that the quick fix methodology must be invented for producing high-caliber construction material. We employed scrap steel mill scale produced during the hot roll milling steel process at the steel producing industry in Coimbatore, India, in this investigation. The focus of this investigation is to look into the durability of mixes of concrete holding steel mill scale as fine aggregates. Concrete mix designs are made to achieve sufficient structural strength and then steel mill scale fine aggregates are added at 20% replacement levels from 0 to 100% by weight of total content of fine aggregates. Tests for determination of physical, chemical properties of materials, workability of concrete, rapid chloride penetration, sorptivity, acid attack on concrete, examining microstructural features of the acid immersed specimens, and accelerated corrosion test were all conducted. According to the results of the testing, 60% of the replacements outperformed the originals. The outcomes of the study point to create sophisticated construction materials from scrap steel mill scale in order to improve environmentally friendly and sustainable construction practices.