Construction and Building Materials 28 (2012) 157–163

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Construction and Building Materials

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Recycling of scale and steel chips waste as a partial replacement of sand in concrete
Mohamed Alwaeli ⇑, Jan Nadziakiewicz
Silesian University of Technology, Department of Technologies and Installations for Waste Management, Konarskiego 18 Str., 44-100 Gliwice, Poland

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Modification of concrete properties by the addition of appropriate materials is a popular field of concrete
Received 1 April 2011 research. This study is focusing on the use of selected waste of iron and steel industry (steel chips and
Received in revised form 11 August 2011 scale) as a partial replacement for sand in the production of concrete. In this research study, concretes
Accepted 16 August 2011
were made with steel chips scale (ScC) and (SchC) as substitution for raw sand. Sand was replaced by
Available online 13 October 2011
these waste in different proportions (25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%) by weight of sand.
The aim of this study is to investigate the compressive strength and absorption properties for gamma
Keywords:
radiation of concrete with steel chips and scale waste as a partial replacement for sand. The tests results
Waste
Steel chips
obtained from concretes produced with scale and steel chips were compared with those in conventional
Scale concrete (CC-0).
Concrete The experimental results indicate that, the addition of these waste to concrete enhances the absorption
Gamma radiation of gamma radiation without impairing other technical features of the investigated concrete. The data
Compressive strength shows, that the concrete mixed with steel chips have better strength than conventional concrete, while
Linear attenuation coefficient in the case of concrete mixed with scale in excess of 25%, the strength become deteriorated. The linear
Concrete thicknesses attenuation coefficient of gamma radiation of concrete with a mixture of scale and steel chips with
75% and 100% was very good while the rest have good and satisfying radiation properties. Consequently,
concrete prepared from the iron and steel industry solid waste containing steel chips and scale could be
preferred for buildings as shielding concretes against gamma radiation. In this research the thickness of
the concrete shield which can be used instead of the conventional concrete was also calculated.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction and pollution and to recycle as much as possible, the concrete

In the last few decades there has been rapid increase in the
waste materials and by-products production due to the exponen-
tial growth rate of population, development of industry and tech-
nology and the growth of consumerism [3]. Iron and steel
industry represents one of the major constituents of industrial so-
lid waste. The principal sources of this type of solid waste are likely
to include iron and steel manufacturing plants, as well as small and
medium sized workshops [12]. Scale, granulated slag, and steel
chips are an industrial waste in the iron and steel industry and
causes a nuisance both to the health and environment when not
properly disposed.
The basic strategies to decrease solid waste disposal problems
have been focused at the reduction of waste production and recov-
ery of usable materials from waste as raw materials as well as recy-
cling of waste as raw materials whenever possible [16]. Recycling
is a logical option for materials not suitable for composting or
incineration. Iron and steel waste, are the most common of these
materials. With increasing environmental pressure to reduce waste
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +48 322372115; fax: +48 322371167.
E-mail address: mohamed.alwaeli@polsl.pl (M. Alwaeli).
industry has begun adopting a number of methods to achieve these
goals [30]. The use of industrial solid waste as a partial replace-
ment of raw materials in construction activities not only saves
landfill space but also reduces the demand for extraction of natural
raw materials [29,34].
Wider usage of radiation techniques creates the necessity to
protect people against both electromagnetic and neutron radiation
[13]. In the building industry it is used for:
– the construction of shields protecting personnel who work in
laboratories where radiation is used;
– the construction of hermetic radiation resistant coating of
atomic piles;
– the construction of burial grounds for nuclear waste deposition
[1].
The most convenient and expedient way in which the afore-
mentioned constructions can be realized is through the introduc-
tion of special kinds of concrete. This type of concrete which
protects against gamma radiation must be characterized by high
attenuation of this radiation. In order to increase the absorptive
properties of concrete such component as heavy aggregates barite,

0950-0618/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2011.08.047
158 M. Alwaeli, J. Nadziakiewicz / Construction and Building Materials 28 (2012) 157–163
heavy sand and many others need to be added. Modification of
concrete properties by the addition of appropriate materials is a
popular field of concrete research. However, iron and steel industry
waste as scale, and steel chips have not been evaluated for this pur-
pose up to now. The main goal of this study was to investigate the
impact of scale and steel chips waste from iron and steel industry
on the compressive strength and absorption properties for gamma
radiation of concrete. Scale, and steel chips are taken into consid-
eration specifically because their high density allows them to be
used as heavy aggregates.
2. Literature review
Compressive strength of concrete has been accepted as the most
important mechanical property of structural concrete. The rela-
tionship between concrete composition and compressive strength
has long been a matter of interest for researchers [6]. Frondistou-
Yannas evaluated and compared the mechanical properties of con-
ventional concrete and concrete mixes made with the pieces of
concrete from demolition waste in the place of natural coarse
aggregate material [11]. He found out that recycled concrete best
matches the mechanical behavior of conventional concrete when
the recycled concrete is enriched in gravel at the expense of mor-
tar. The recycled aggregate concrete has a compressive strength of
at least 76% and modulus of elasticity from 60% to 100% of the con-
trol mix.
Test results by Rai et al. [28] explored the possibility of using
metallurgic slags (granulated and air-cooled) in making blended
slag cement with conventional Portland cement. The results, which
indicated that slag could be used with slight modifications as non-
structural concrete, provided a direction for profitable plans for
making blended slag cements. Demirboga and Gul [8] used blast
furnace slag aggregate (BFSA) to produce high-strength concretes
(HSC). Their results showed that the compressive strength of BFSA
concrete was approximately 60–80% higher than that of traditional
concretes. These concretes also had low absorption and high split-
ting tensile strength values.
In recent studies, various types of materials have been investi-
gated as sand or aggregates replacement. Batayneh et al. [5] used
demolished concrete, glass, and plastic in concrete production,
and concluded that the main findings of this investigation revealed
that the three types of waste materials could be reused success-
fully as partial substitutes for sand or coarse aggregates in concrete
mixtures.
Ismail and Al-Hashmi [12] investigated the impact of waste iron
on the properties of concrete as determined by an extensive series
of tests. Their results indicated that the concrete mixes made with
waste iron had higher compressive strengths and flexural
strengths than the conventional concrete mixes.
Al-Jabri et al. [3] reported an experimental program to investi-
gate the effect of using copper slag as a replacement of sand on the
properties of high performance concrete (HPC). The results indicate
that there is a slight increase in the HPC density of nearly 5% with
the increase of copper slag content, whereas the workability in-
creased rapidly with increase in copper slag percentage. Addition
of up to 50% of copper slag as sand replacement yielded compara-
ble strength with that of the control mix. However, further addi-
tions of copper slag caused reduction in the strength due to an
increase of the free water content in the mix. Mixes with 80%
and 100% copper slag replacement gave the lowest compressive
strength value of approximately 80 MPa, which is almost 16% low-
er than the strength of the control mix.
Research carried out by Qasrawi et al. [27] on the use of low CaO
unprocessed steel slag in concrete mixes showed that depending
on the grade of concrete, the compressive strength is improved
when steel slag is used for low sand replacement ratios (up to
30%). When optimum values are used, the 28-day tensile strength
of concrete is improved by 1.4–2.4 times and the compressive
strength is improved by 1.1–1.3 times depending on the replace-
ment ratio and the grade of concrete. The best results are obtained
for replacement ratios of 30–50% for tensile strength and 15–30%
for compressive strength.
Properties of concrete containing a high volume of tire–rubber
particles as mineral aggregates replacement were investigated by
Khaloo et al. [14]. The results of a uniaxial compressive strain con-
trol test conducted on hardened concrete specimens indicate large
reductions in the strength and tangential modulus of elasticity. The
maximum toughness index, indicating the post failure strength of
concrete, occurs in concretes with 25% rubber content. The results
showed also that the fresh rubberized concrete mixtures with
increasing rubber concentrations present lower unit weights com-
pared to plain concrete. Workability of rubberized concrete with
coarse rubber particles is reduced with increasing rubber concen-
tration; however, rubberized concrete with fine rubber particles
exhibits an acceptable workability with respect to plain concrete.
Özkan et al. [19] carried out a study into the strength properties
of concrete incorporating coal bottom ash (CBA) and granulated
blast furnace slag (GBFS), and concluded that replacement of
(GBFS) and (CBA) as fine aggregate in concrete generally decreases
the compressive strength.
With increasing use of gamma-ray active isotopes in industry,
medicine and agriculture, it has now become necessary to study
shielding properties in various materials of technological and bio-
logical importance. There is away a need to develop material,
which can be used under harsh conditions of radiation exposure
and can act as shielding materials [15,32].
A number of experimental and theoretical works have been per-
formed on radiation shielding, which has large different applica-
tion areas with different materials (e.g. igeneous rock, semi-
conductor, colemanite, etc.) [18,33,35,36,2,4,17].
In general, various materials have been used for the radiation
shielding in different applications. For example, polyethylene,
glasses, epoxy resin, colemanite, lead and concentrate have been
used for neutron and gamma shield, and also, lead, Lipowitz alloy
and Cu–Ag polymer were used for electrons shield [26]. In order
to match shielding properties to the concrete based composites,
boron, lead or their compounds have been used [7,9].
Photon attenuation coefficient is an important parameter for
characterizing the penetration and diffusion of X-and c-rays in
the multi-element materials. The scattering and absorption of
gamma radiations are related to density and effective atomic num-
bers of material; knowledge of the mass attenuation coefficients is
of prime importance. However, the linear (l, cm1) or mass atten-
uation (l/q (cm2 g1)) coefficient, which are defined as the proba-
bility of all possible interactions between c-rays and atomic nuclei,
has been described to investigate the radiation shielding properties
of any shielding materials. These attenuation coefficients depend
on the incident photon energy and the chemical composition of
the absorbing materials’ parameters such as their types, thickness
and densities. The accurate values of mass attenuation coefficients
(l/q) of c-rays in several materials are of great importance for
industrial, biological, agricultural and medical studies. A number
of related parameters can be derived from mass attenuation coef-
ficient such as mass energy-absorption coefficient, the total inter-
actions’ cross-section, the molar extinction coefficient, the effective
atomic number and the electron density [31].
Much research has been conducted on the attenuation coeffi-
cient of concretes with various materials. Demir and Keles [7] mea-
sured radiation transmission of concrete produced by using
borogypsum and colemanite concentrator waste for 59.54 and
80.99 keV gamma rays and investigated whether is useful to add
 M. Alwaeli, J. Nadziakiewicz / Construction and Building Materials 28 (2012) 157–163 159

these waste containing boron as shielding material to cement. The Table 2

results showed that the mass attenuation coefficient was increased Composition of the concrete mixed with scale (kg/m3).

with increasing boron concentration in the concrete and the both Components ScC-25 ScC-50 ScC-75 ScC-100
kind of boron waste have nearly the same properties in the radia- Scale 300.0 808.0 1034.5 1503.2
tion transmission. Sand 899.4 808.8 344.8 0.0
Erdem et al. [10] prepared a novel shielding material from met- Cement 442.1 596.3 508.5 554.1
allurgical solid waste containing lead for gamma ray, and con- Water 216.0 274.2 222.1 229.3
Gravel 2–4 mm 340.4 459.2 391.6 426.8
cluded that anew shielding material prepared from the solid Gravel 4–8 mm 172.8 233.0 198.7 216.6
waste containing lead could be preferred for buildings as shielding
materials against gamma radiation.

Table 3
3. Materials and methods Composition of the concrete mixed with steel chips (kg/m3).

Components SchC-25 SchC-50 SchC-75 SchC-100

3.1. Materials
Steel chips 295.6 629.0 1059.9 1567.1
Properties of materials, which were used in experiments, are indicated in Table 1. Sand 886.8 629.0 353.3 0.0
Cement 435.9 463.8 521.0 577.7
Water 243.0 239.9 260.5 285.6
3.2. Specimens preparation Gravel 2–4 mm 335.7 357.1 401.2 444.9
Gravel 4–8 mm 170.3 181.2 203.6 225.8
In this research study, two different types of concrete (ScC) and (SchC) were
cast. Sand was replaced by these waste in different proportions (25%, 50%, 75%,
and 100%) by weight of sand, in order to produce ScC-25, ScC-50, ScC-75, ScC-
100, SchC-25, SchC-50, SchC-75, and SchC-100 concretes. The compositions of the Table 4
concrete mixtures are shown in Tables 2 and 3. Composition of the conventional concrete (kg/m3).
For comparison purposes conventional concrete specimens CC-0 were also pre-
pared. Composition of the conventional concrete is listed in Table 4. Components
All concretes were produced in accordance with Polish Standards [21–24]. Nine Sand Cement Water Gravel 2–4 mm Gravel 4–8 mm
cubes of each type of mixed concrete and three cubes of CC-O were molded for com-
pressive strength, and 84 slabs were cast for gamma radiation absorption measure- 1122.2 413.7 214.0 318.6 161.7
ments. Curing of all the concrete samples was allowed in water for 28 days.

4. Calculation of the attenuation coefficient of radiation

3.3. Measurements
In order to calculate the linear attenuation coefficient (l, cm1),
Compressive strength was measured in accordance with Polish Standards [25]
on cubes of 100  100  100 mm. Tests were conducted on all the specimens after the average background of radiation was first calculated according
28 days of curing. Average tests results obtained in Pascals are given in Table 5 and to:
Fig. 1. To measure the gamma radiation absorption, seven slabs measuring
250  250  26 mm were produced for each mixture proportions. For measure- Nav ;bg ¼ ððN1 þ N 2 Þ=2t ð1Þ
ment of absorption of radiation +60Cobalt of E = 1.25 MeV energy was used as the
source of gamma radiation. The radioactivity of cobalt during the measurement where N1 – number of pulses before measurement, N2 – number of
was 1.230E-04 [Gbq]. The distance from the radiation source to the probe detector pulses after measurement, t – time of each measurement.
was 850 mm. The distance of the source from the first slab was 790 mm. Next, the arithmetical average of the number of pulses from 12
In order to measure the number of pulses, the concrete slab was placed in the measurements of each thickness from the test sample series, with-
measuring point between the radiation source and scintillator. In this manner 12
measured points were placed on the surface of each slab and accordingly, the mea-
out background Nd was calculated.
surements were carried on. Next, the mean value from 12 measurements was cal- For the calculation of the multiplication factor of attenuation of
culated. After that, the second slab was added, thus increasing the thickness of the gamma radiation K, the diagram of the dependence of the number
concrete shield. In the same measured points, the intensity of radiation was mea- of pulses on the thickness of the concrete shield was plotted. For
sured again. The number of slabs was subsequently increased up to 7. Eventually,
example, Fig. 2 presents the dependence of the number of pulses
for each kind of concrete, 84 measurements were performed. The measuring time
was chosen in such a way that the number of pulses exceeded 10,000. The back- on the thickness of (ScC-25). The matching equation of measure-
ground radiation was measured before and after each test. ments data is as follows:
2
Nd ¼ 28:07d  996:28d þ 9645:7 ð2Þ
Table 1
Chemical composition of the components used in the study. where d – thickness of the concrete shield (cm).
On the basis of the results obtained the attenuation of radiation
Contents (%)
(K) for each thickness of concrete was calculated according to:
Element Cement Sand Water Steel chips Scale
K ¼ ðN0 =N d Þ ð3Þ
H – – 0.11 – –
O 52.25 49.48 0.89 – 30.19 where N01– the number of pulses for d = 0,
Al 2.55 6.04 – – –
N d ¼ N av ;m  N av ;bg , in which: Nav,m is the average of the mea-
Si 11.75 34.23 – – –
Mg 2.43 0.81 – – – sured number of pulses, Nav,bg is the average background of radia-
Fe 0.77 2.53 – 60.04 67.19 tion. The data of multiplication factor attenuation is presented in
Na – 4.03 – – – Table 6, and Figs. 3 and 4.
C – 0.46 – – – The data shows the dependence between multiplication factor
S 1.34 – – – –
Ca 23.66 2.42 – – –
and the thickness of concrete and the amount of waste added.
Pb – – – – – The multiplication factor increases with the increase of concrete
Cu – – – 6.78 0.51 thickness.
Cr – – – 25.05 1.41
Ni – – – 7.91 0.55 1
Others 5.25 0.00 0.00 0.22 0.15 The value of N0 was not measured to avoid damage of the detector, this value was
calculated according to equation (2) for d = 0.
160 M. Alwaeli, J. Nadziakiewicz / Construction and Building Materials 28 (2012) 157–163

Table 5
Comparison of the compressive strength (MPa) of the conventional concrete and concrete mixed with scale and steel chip.

Symbol Conventional concrete Concrete with scale Concrete with steel chips
CC-0 ScC-25 ScC-50 ScC-75 ScC-100 SchC-25 SchC-50 SchC-75 SchC-100
Compressive strength (MPa) 37.80 43.00 23.80 23.00 24.90 47.00 49.00 54.00 57.00

60

50
MPa

40

30

20
0 25 50 75 100
%
Scale steel chips

Fig. 1. Relationship between the scale and steel chips ratio and the compressive strength of concrete.

8000
7000
2
Nd = 28.07d - 996.28d + 9645.7
6000
5000
Pulse

4000
3000
2000
1000
0
0 2.6 5.2 7.8 10.4 13 15.6 18.2 20.8
(d. cm)

Fig. 2. Relationship between the number of pulses and the thickness of concrete (ScC-25).

Table 6
Comparison of multiplication factor attenuation of gamma radiation of the conventional concrete and concrete mixed with scale and steel chip.

d (cm) Conventional concrete Concrete with scale Concrete with steel chips
CC-0 ScC-25 ScC-50 ScC-75 ScC-100 SchC-25 SchC-50 SchC-75 SchC-100
2.6 1.29 1.39 1.47 1.73 1.62 1.64 1.50 1.73 1.83
5.2 1.80 2.02 2.17 2.78 2.65 2.39 2.26 2.62 3.03
7.8 2.57 2.95 3.16 4.19 4.08 3.53 3.41 4.11 5.10
10.4 3.55 4.38 4.64 6.59 6.62 5.25 5.09 6.79 8.43
13 5.09 6.51 6.81 11.02 10.70 7.94 7.64 10.88 14.33
15.6 7.17 10.03 10.02 18.20 16.90 13.49 11.48 18.12 26.08
18.2 10.09 14.51 14.93 35.13 28.84 21.87 17.22 31.98 51.42

Compared the multiplication factor of conventional concrete 5. Calculation of thickness of radiation shield
(ScC-0, SchC-0) with concretes mixes’ with waste, we see that
the amount of waste added to the concrete mixture increases the Using the obtained value of the attenuation factor of gamma
multiplication factor for each measured thickness. radiation, the thickness of the concrete shield was calculated on
The linear attenuation coefficient of gamma radiation can be the basis of the tables and diagrams of Polish Standards [20]. The
calculated according to relation: thickness of concrete was calculated for following regulatory
requirements:
l ¼ ð1=dÞ ln K ð4Þ
The data of linear attenuation coefficient is presented in Table 7 – dose equivalent constant – 0.03 cGy m2 h1 Gbq,
and Figs. 5 and 6. while, the average values of attenuation coef- – weekly dose – 0.1 cGy,
ficient in relation to the amount of waste added is shown in – medium absorption coefficient – 1,
Fig. 7.
The data presented in Fig 7 shows that, the calculated linear and following assumptions:
attenuation coefficient of gamma radiation does not change much – radiation source activity – 400 Gbq,
for various shield thicknesses with is in agreement with theory of – radiation source distance of concrete – 2 m,
attenuation. – weekly exposure time – 20 h,
 M. Alwaeli, J. Nadziakiewicz / Construction and Building Materials 28 (2012) 157–163 161

40

35

Multiplication factor
30

25

20

15

10

0
2.6 5.2 7.8 10.4 13 15.6 18.2
Thickness (d. cm)
ScC-25 ScC-50 ScC-75 ScC-100

Fig. 3. Relationship between the multiplication factor and the thickness of concrete mixed with scale.

60
Multiplication factor

50

40

30

20

10

0
2.6 5.2 7.8 10.4 13 15.6 18.2
Thickness (cm)
SchC-25 SchC-50 SchC-75 SchC-100

Fig. 4. Relationship between the multiplication factor and the thickness of concrete mixed with steel chips.

Table 7
Comparison of linear attenuation coefficient average of the conventional concrete and concrete mixed with scale and steel chip (cm1).

Conventional concrete Concrete with scale Concrete with steel chips

CC-0 ScC-25 ScC-50 ScC-75 ScC-100 SchC-25 SchC-50 SchC-75 SchC-100
Average 0.13 0.14 0.15 0.19 0.18 0.17 0.16 0.19 0.21

0.22

0.2

0.18
µ (cm )
-1

0.16

0.14

0.12

0.1
2.6 5.2 7.8 10.4 13 15.6 18.2
Thickness (d. cm)

CC-0 ScC-25 ScC-50 ScC-75 ScC-100

Fig. 5. Plot of linear attenuation coefficients versus the thickness of conventional concrete and concrete with scale.

For these assumptions and requirements the multiplication fac- with PN-86-800. The value of multiplication factor K = 600 was
tor of attenuation of gamma radiation was calculated according determined as needed for the safety conditions. For this value,
162 M. Alwaeli, J. Nadziakiewicz / Construction and Building Materials 28 (2012) 157–163

0.24

0.22

0.2

µ (cm )
-1
0.18

0.16

0.14

0.12

0.1
2.6 5.2 7.8 10.4 13 15.6 18.2
Thickness (d. cm)
CC-0 SchC-25 SchC-50 SchC-75 SchC-100

Fig. 6. Plot of linear attenuation coefficients versus the thickness of conventional concrete and concrete with steel chips.

0.22
0.21
0.20
0.19
µ (cm )

0.18
-1

0.17
0.16
0.15
0.14
0.13
0.12
0 25 50 75 100
Scale and steel chips ratio (%)

Scale Steel chips

Fig. 7. Average value of linear attenuation coefficient of gamma radiation.

6.2. Effect of scale and steel chips substitute on the gamma radiation
Table 8
attenuation
Comparison of thickness of the conventional and mixed concretes.

Concrete name Thickness Obtained Rather It is clear from Table 7 that the linear attenuation coefficient of
(cm) difference (cm) difference (%)
gamma radiation of concrete increases significantly with the in-
Conventional concrete 49.21 – – crease of scale and steel chips content in concrete mixes. The linear
Concrete mixed with scale 41.35 7.86 15.97
attenuation coefficient of concrete mixes made with 25%, 50%, 75%,
Concrete mixed with steel chips 39.96 9.25 18.80
and 100% scale increased by 5.43%, 10.60%, 30.83%, and 27.77%,
respectively, compared with the conventional concrete specimen.
The linear attenuation coefficient of concrete specimens made
from 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% steel chips are also higher compared
the thicknesses of concretes were calculated for measured linear of
to conventional concrete. The linear attenuation coefficient have
attenuation coefficient. The obtained results for all mixed con-
increased by 21.10%, 15.29%, 29.87%, and 37.81%, respectively.
cretes are given in Table 8.
This considerable increase in the linear attenuation coefficient
with the increase of scale and steel chips quantity is attributed
6. Results and discussion to the high density of these waste.

6.1. Effect of scale and steel chips substitute on the compressive 6.3. Effect of scale and steel chips substitute on the thickness of
strength concrete

As shown in Table 5, addition of up to 25% of scale waste as
sand replacement result in increasing the compressive strength.
However, further additions of scale in excess of 25% caused
reduction in the compressive strength. It could be caused by
the fact that bond forces between cement and scale are lower
than between cement and sand probably because the scale was
not cleaned of grease before mixing. When the ratio of steel chips
waste is increased, the compressive strength increases. The com-
pressive strength of concrete made from 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%
steel chips increased by 24.34%, 29.63%, 42.86%, and 50.79%,
respectively.
As shown in Table 8, for regulatory requirements listed in head-
line 5, the thickness of conventional concrete is 49.21 cm. Thick-
ness of concrete mixed with scale and steel chips is equal
41.35 cm and 39.96 cm, respectively. The data displayed that, addi-
tion of scale and steel chips waste caused decrease the thickness of
concrete about 15.97%, and 18.80%, respectively.
7. Conclusions
This study used scale and steel chips waste from iron and steel
industry as a partial replacement for sand to improve the concrete
 M. Alwaeli, J. Nadziakiewicz / Construction and Building Materials 28 (2012) 157–163
properties concerning its compressive strength and gamma radia-
tion attenuation. Steel chips and scale are taken into consideration
specifically because their high density allows them to be used as
heavy aggregates.
The results of this research are summarized as follows:
– The compressive strength of concrete containing steel chips is
better than conventional concrete, while in the case of concrete
mixed with scale in excess of 25%, the strength become
deteriorated.
– As far as the protection against gamma radiation is concerned,
the thickness of the concrete shield has a very high impact on
the attenuation of radiation. The waste materials that were used
in the experiments have big influence on the density of the con-
crete and attenuation coefficients.
– All such concretes are characterized by higher absorption of
gamma radiation. That makes them different from the conven-
tional concrete. The linear attenuation coefficient of gamma
radiation of concrete with a mixture of scale and steel chips
with 75% and 100% was very good while the rest have good
and satisfying radiation properties.
– The data given in Table 8, shows that using these waste as a
replacement of sand in concrete shields allows reduction of
it’s thickness by about 16% for scale, and by around 19% for steel
chips.
– Waste added to the concrete shield is an efficient method of
environmental protection both for radiation and for waste utili-
zation points of view. Additionally, the reuse of scale and steel
chips waste in concrete production cut waste disposal costs,
and conserves the environment by saving large amount of pri-
mary raw materials.
In conclusion, the results obtained show that the addition of
scale and steel chips waste to concrete enhances the absorption
of gamma radiation without impairing other technical features of
the investigated concrete. These concrete may be used for con-
struction of shields protecting personnel who work in laboratories
where radiation is used.
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