Case Studies in Construction Materials 15 (2021) e00755

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Case Studies in Construction Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cscm

Engineering properties of factory manufactured paving blocks

utilizing steel slag as cement replacement
Iqrar Hussain a, Babar Ali b, *, Muhammad Usman Rashid c,
Muhammad Talha Amir c, f, Sobia Riaz d, Asif Ali e
a
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila 47050, Pakistan
b
Department of Civil Engineering, COMSATS University Islamabad, Sahiwal Campus, Sahiwal 57000, Pakistan
c
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila 47050, Pakistan
d
Department of Civil Engineering, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 66000, Pakistan
e
Department of Civil Engineering, COMSATS University Islamabad, Wah Campus, Wah Cantt 47080, Pakistan
f
HOPE Marketting, 47060, Islamabad

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Vibropressing compaction of dry mixed concrete has increased the production rate of paving
Cheap concrete blocks blocks, as it eradicated the need of formwork to hold the fresh concrete mixture in shape after
Impact toughness molding. This technique also optimized the cost-benefit ratio as it helps in achieving high strength
Compressive strength
blocks with the minimum utilization of water and cement. In this study, effect of steel slag powder
Environment
Recycling
(SSP) was studied as the cement replacement material on the physical and mechanical properties
of paving blocks. The cement was replaced with SSP as 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30% by
mass. Incorporation of SSP improved the finishing of paving blocks. The results of compression
testing revealed that paving blocks incorporating 5–15% SSP as the cement replacement showed
higher strength than the control paving block. This improvement is entirely credited to the better
packing of constituent particles caused by the filling effect of SSP. The increase in ultrasonic pulse
speed also confirmed that 5–15% SSP improved the density of paving blocks. However, the
impact toughness of paving blocks reduced with the rise in SSP percentage beyond 5%.

1. Introduction

The paving blocks have numerous applications i.e., footways, parking areas, gas stations, patios, highway toll stations, bus stops
and stations, etc. Specially designed paving blocks can withstand heavy static traffic loads like rigid pavements, and these can be re-
adjusted easily if a change is needed in the layout of pavements.
Since the advent of vibro-pressing compaction, pre-cast concrete block industry has experienced massive growth [1].
Vibro-pressing compaction of zero-slump concrete has eliminated the need to keep the concrete blocks in the molds for setting period.
Utilization of high pressure (i.e., 75 kg/cm2) along with vibration (25–50 Hz) has helped in achieving good compaction at low
water-binder ratio, that shows positive effect on the imperviousness and compressive strength of the product block [2].
Mining of raw materials for cement and aggregate manufacturing, and transportation of cement and aggregate to the concrete plant
have shown several negative impacts on the quality of environment. Alone cement accounts for 7% of the total global warming

* Correspondence to: Lecturer, COMSATS University Islamabad, Sahiwal Campus, 57000, Pakistan.
E-mail address: babar.ali@cuisahiwal.edu.pk (B. Ali).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cscm.2021.e00755
Received 31 August 2021; Received in revised form 11 October 2021; Accepted 21 October 2021
Available online 22 October 2021
2214-5095/© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
I. Hussain et al. Case Studies in Construction Materials 15 (2021) e00755

emissions produced annually [3]. The calcination of limestone (CaCO3) to produce cement releases massive amounts of CO2 into the
atmosphere [4,5]. Based on life cycle assessments, 1 kg of Portland cement produces about 0.75–1 kg of eq-CO2 [3,6,7]. The best
solution to reduce carbon footprint of concrete is to substitute cement with potential eco-friendly industrial pozzolanas such as fly ash,
ground-granulated blast furnace slag, silica fume, etc.
Steel slag is a by-product of steel manufacturing process. Steel slag occurs in the molten liquid form and its complex solution of
silicates and aluminates is cooled to form a solid rock like material. According to US Geological Survey on mineral commodities [8],
global steel slag production was between 190 and 280 million tons in 2019. Due to high strength and hardness like natural stone, steel
slag can be used as an aggregate in the construction industry. It can also be used as a cement replacement material in a finely ground
form. Studies [9–11] have confirmed the positive effects of steel slag powder (SSP) as cement replacement material on the long-term
mechanical and durability properties of concrete. It has shown positive effects on the acid attack resistance [12] and chloride dura­
bility of concrete [13].
The effect of steel slag aggregate (SSA) has been studied on the properties and environmental impact of laboratory produced paving
blocks [14]. It was reported that strength of paving blocks decreased with the increasing substitution of natural aggregates with SSA.
The paving blocks produced with SSA posed minimum threat to climate change and ecosystem quality, however, the major contri­
bution of environmental impact from paving blocks was dependent on the cement content of the paving blocks. Ganjian et al.[15]
reported the effects of incorporation of SSP on tensile strength of paving blocks. The reported that incorporation of 6.3% SSP by
volume of the mixture can reduce the cement demand of paving blocks by 30%. However, no information was presented on
compressive strength of paving block which determines its suitability according to design specifications.
The available literature [14,15] is insufficient about the evaluation of paving blocks made with the eco-friendly materials.
Moreover, the information about mechanical and durability properties of factory-manufactured paving blocks incorporating waste
materials is scarce. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of local SSP as a partial substitution of cement on the mechanical and
physical properties of paving blocks. Outcomes of this investigation has implications for the ecofriendly use of slag waste in the paving
blocks industry.

2. Experimental program

2.1. Materials

2.1.1. Cement type I

General purpose type I cement was used as the main binder in the production of paving blocks. The properties of this cement are as
shown in Table 1.

2.1.2. Steel slag powder (SSP)

Slag was obtained as a coarse-stone from a local steel mill in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. The steel slag stones were crushed to the
passing size of 350 µm-sieve in a ball-rolling grinding machine. The overview of steel slag aggregate and SSP is shown in Fig. 1.
Physical and chemical properties of SSP are as shown in Table 1.

2.1.3. Aggregates
Natural quarry sand of Jinda Pir was used as fine aggregate having fineness modulus of 2.87. The maximum particle size of this sand
was 4.75 mm. Crushed stone aggregate of Sakhi Sarwar quarry, DG Khan, Punjab, Pakistan was used coarse aggregate having
maximum aggregate size of 6 mm. The maximum percentage of coarse aggregate particles lies between 4.75 mm and 9.5 mm. The
particle size distribution of fine and coarse aggregate sample is as shown in Table 2.

2.1.4. Water
Potable bore water was used in the mixing and curing of paving blocks.

2.2. Design and preparation of batches

A total of seven concrete batches were prepared utilizing seven different percentages (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, and 30%) of
SSP. The SSP was used as the mass replacement of cement. By mass ratio between binder, fine aggregate and coarse aggregate was 1:2:4
and water to binder ratio was 0.3. This mix design was selected for 50 MPa compressive strength at 7-days based on field experience.
The design strength of paving blocks ≥ 49 MPa at 7-days is required by the local Planning and Development (P&D) division of Pakistan

Table 1
Properties of binders.
Binder Chemical oxide composition Physical properties

CaO SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 MgO SO3 LOI Initial setting Final setting time Specific Specific surfaces area
time (min) (min) gravity (m2/kg)

Cement 61.6% 19.3% 5.2% 2.6% 1.1% 2.9% 1.2% 152 265 3.12 345
SSP 35.2% 32.6% 13.9% 0.4% 6.7% 1.5% 0.7% – – 2.91 455

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Fig. 1. Overview of SSP processing.

Table 2
Particle size distributions of coarse and fine aggregate samples.
Passing material Sieve size (mm)

12.5 9.5 4.75 2.36 1.18 0.6 0.3 0.15

Passing of fine aggregate 100 100 98 87 65 33 23 8

Passing of coarse aggregate 100 99 21 0.5 0 0 0 0

for the application in roads [16]. The details of all seven batches are shown in Table 3. Ingredients of all mixtures were charged into the
plant mixer, and dry blending of aggregates and binder (cement and SSP) was done for about 1 min, then water was added, and mixing
continued for 2 min. After the completion of mixing, zero-slump concrete was laid on the casts. The dimension of each paving block
was 100 × 60×200 mm. The binder was sprinkled on the top surface of the paving blocks to improve the finishing at the top surface.
To improve finishing of paving blocks, a thin layer of binder is spread over the casts. Finally, fresh concrete blocks were compacted (1)
first under the vibration of 40 Hertz for 3 s, and (2) then by the combined action of vibration (40 Hertz) and 75 kg/cm2 engine pressure
for 5 s to achieve finished blocks. After removing from casts, sample blocks were allowed to set for 24 h. Water curing of samples was
done under field conditions (average temperature 28 ◦ C) and testing was done after 7 and 28-days. The overview of zero-slump
concrete and vibro-pressed tiles is shown in Fig. 2.

2.3. Studied properties

The most important performance indicator of the paving block is compressive strength, which was used as its design grade
depending upon the specific application. The compressive strength test on paving blocks having dimensions of 100 mm × 60 mm x
200 mm was performed at the age of 7 and 28-days. Ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) test was performed to understand the effect of SSP
on the homogenization or density of paving blocks as per ASTM C597 [17]. The UPV test setup is shown in Fig. 3. In order to investigate
the toughness of paving blocks, repeated weight drop test was performed as shown in Fig. 4. This test method is adopted from ACI
Committee 544 [18]. The number of drops until a complete fracture were counted and reported in this study. Water absorption test on
28-days cured samples was performed according to ASTM C948 [19]. The samples were dried at 60 ◦ C for 3 days to note their dry
weights. After drying samples were immersed in water for 24 h to determine their saturated weights. Water absorption was measured
as the percentage difference between dry and saturated weights of the samples. For each test, three repeated samples of each block
were tested, and their average result was reported in this research.

Table 3
Batches of paving blocks.
Batch ID SSP (%) Cement (kg/m3) SSP (kg/m3) Fine aggregate (kg/m3) Coarse aggregate (kg/m3) Water (kg/m3) Number of paving blocks

SSP0 0 350.0 0.0 700 1400 105 15

SSP5 5 332.5 17.5 700 1400 105 15
SSP10 10 315.0 35.0 700 1400 105 15
SSP15 15 297.5 52.5 700 1400 105 15
SSP20 20 280.0 70.0 700 1400 105 15
SSP25 25 262.5 87.5 700 1400 105 15
SSP30 30 245.0 105.0 700 1400 105 15

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Fig. 2. Overview of (a) freshly mixed zero slump concrete and (b) paving blocks.

Fig. 3. Overview of UPV test setup.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Compressive strength

Paving blocks having compressive strength higher than 49 MPa are recommended for highway applications in Pakistan [16]. The
results of compression testing on all batches are presented in Fig. 5. The selected mix design ratio of control batch yielded compressive
strength of 56.2 and 60.3 MPa at 7 and 28-days, respectively. Paving blocks made with SSP up to 15%, showed higher compressive
strength than control batch. Blocks with 20% SSP showed strength higher than that required for application in roads. While paving
blocks made with 25% and 30% SSP showed significant reduction in compressive strength compared to control batch (SSP0). It is
hypothesized that the incorporation of 5–15% SSP improves the filling effect of binder and compaction of paving blocks. Small
particles of SSP fill the gaps between particles of cement and aggregates, hence, the improved compaction and density help in the
improvement of the strength. An increase of about 8.5% in the compressive strength of block (w.r.t control batch) was observed by
Uygunoğlu et al. [21] with the use of fly ash as 10% replacement of cement. However, a high level incorporation (i.e., 20–40%) of fly
ash showed a negative effect on the compressive strength [21]. Compressive strength drops with high level incorporation of SSP i.e.,
20–30%. This is attributed to the lower activity of SSP particles compared to cement [15]. The optimum level of SSP considering
maximum compressive strength is 10%. However, considering overall economic benefits and eco-friendliness, blocks made with 20%
SSP can still meet the requirement of strength for highway applications.

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Fig. 4. Overview of impact toughness setup [20].

Fig. 5. Effect of SSP on the compressive strength at 7 and 28-days.

3.2. Ultrasonic pulse velocity

Ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) tells about the homogenization and dense packing of particles. In order to investigate effect of SSP
in paving blocks, UPV can be reasonable tool. The results of UPV test are shown in Fig. 6. There is clear improvement in the UPV after
the addition of 5–20% SSP as replacement of cement. This confirms that 5–20% SSP improves the compaction, density and imper­
viousness of paving blocks. Furthermore, a high UPV can also be an indication of chemical reactions between SSP and cement particles
that lead to the formation of cementitious crystals [12]. While a lower UPV at 25% and 30% SSP levels, shows that microstructure is
poorly developed, or particles of matrix are not attached firmly as in the case of SSP levels lower than 25%. The increase in UPV can be
connected an improvement in fcm. This confirms that filling effect of SSP is useful to the density of paving blocks that cause an increase
in the fcm. While the decline in fcm due to high level incorporation of SSP is indicated by the reduction in UPV.

3.3. Impact toughness

Paving blocks are generally used for static loads, but they may experience impact loads due to sudden movement of a vehicle.
Therefore, impact toughness of paving blocks is related mechanical property. Impact load is significantly lesser than those of the static
loads, therefore, broken blocks add to the discomfort of the drivers. In this research, impact toughness is measured by the repeated
drop of weights on paving blocks. The average number of blows required to induce a complete fracture failure in a block are shown in
Fig. 7. The results show that toughness of paving blocks is reduced significantly when the incorporation level of SSP exceeds 5%. The
decrease in the toughness of paving blocks with the SSP addition is blamed to increase in the brittleness of concrete. SSP particles

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Fig. 6. The effect of SSP on UPV of paving blocks.

Fig. 7. Average number of blows required to induce a complete fracture failure in batches of paving blocks with SSP.

slowly react in the hydration process, therefore, connectivity between binder particles may take longer time to fully develop especially
at higher levels of SSP. The filler effect of unreacted or partially reacted SSP particles can aid to a rapid propagation of cracks under
impact loading as a result of weak linkage or cohesion between constituent particles of concrete. The effect of SSP on the results of
impact toughness is slightly different from than on the compressive strength. It is hypothesized the increase in the strength class causes
an increase in the brittleness as it is also true for plain concrete [22].

3.4. Water absorption capacity

Water absorption (WA) capacity is a measure of permeable porosity of concrete. WA of each batch is shown in Fig. 8. SSP proves to
be useful in reducing WA capacity of paving blocks. Maximum reduction in WA, of about 20%, was observed 10% SSP compared to
SSP0 batch. While mixtures containing up to 25% SSP showed lower WA than SSP0 batch. These results showed that the replacement of
cement with finer SSP reduces the permeable porosity of concrete. This can ultimately lead to improvement in the durability of paving
blocks under the wetting and drying action. SSP5, SSP10, SSP15 and SSP20 showed lower WA than SSP0. Similarly, SSP5, SSP10,
SSP15 and SSP20 higher compressive strength than SSP0. This showed that WA and compressive strength are inversely related to each
other.

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Fig. 8. Effect of SSP on the WA capacity of paving blocks.

3.5. Optimization of SSP

The most relevant performance indicators of a paving block are compressive strength and impact toughness. Therefore, the level of
SSP should be selected based on the maximum achievement of compressive strength and impact toughness. Fig. 9 shows the plot
between SSP level, compressive strength and impact toughness (number of blows). 0–15% SSP yields maximum compressive strength,
while 5% SSP yields maximum toughness. Therefore, optimum level of SSP can be considered as 5% SSP, since it showed highest
toughness and notably higher compressive strength than control batch.
Optimization of SSP in paving blocks can also be done based on the results of economic and environmental performance indicators.
Although, small levels of SSP (i.e., 5–10%) show optimum mechanical performance, high levels of SSP can be favorable to the eco­
nomic and environmental performance. Up to 20% SSP can still meet the recommended strength standard for road applications [16], it
can bring a significant reduction in the cost and carbon footprint of concrete. It is well-known that 1 kg of Portland cement releases
approximately 1 kg of equivalent CO2 emissions [3,23]. On the other hand, SSP manufacturing consumes energy only in the grinding
stage, as a result, 1 kg of SSP produces about 0.143 kg of CO2 [24]. Therefore, the substitution of cement with SSP can cause significant
reduction in carbon footprint of paving blocks.

4. Conclusions

The following are the important conclusions of this research study:

Fig. 9. Relationship between compressive strength, SSP percentage and number of impact blows.

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1. At 28-days, paving blocks made with 10% SSP as partial replacement of cement yielded 13% higher compressive strength than the
blocks made without SSP. Considering the environmental and economic benefits, blocks made with 20% SSP can yield high
compressive strength meeting the requirements for road pavement blocks.
2. The paving blocks with 5–15% SSP showed notably higher UPV than blocks made without SSP. The increase in UPV due to 5–15%
SSP addition in the paving blocks indicates improvement in the density and compressive strength. High level of SSP leads to a
decline in UPV.
3. The impact toughness of paving blocks decreased notably when 10–30% SSP was used as cement replacement. The use of SSP
makes paving blocks brittle. However, batch with 5% SSP showed more toughness than the control batch.
4. SSP incorporation from 5% to 25% reduces the WA capacity of paving blocks compared to control batch. The maximum WA
reduction of 20% was observed at 10% SSP incorporation.

Funding

No external funding was received for this project.

Code availability

Sources of all codes are present in this article.

Declaration of Competing Interest

On behalf of the co-authors, I, Babar Ali declare that there is no conflict of interest to disclose.

Data availability

All data and materials used are provided in this research article.

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