Experimental Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Beams with Electric Arc Furnace Slag as Recycled Aggregate

The aim of the present work is to investigate the possibility of partially substituting natural aggregates with Black/Oxidizing Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) slag for Reinforced Concrete (RC) structural elements. International research has been mainly focused on experimental tests on small specimens rather than investigating the behavior of RC structural elements. In this work the experimental behavior of RC beams made with EAF slag as aggregate was studied showing that these beams have both ultimate flexural and shear capacity higher than the corresponding traditional beams. Some comparisons between experimental results and analytical predictions according to the European and US recommendations were also shown. The main result of this work is that the use of steel slag as aggregate in RC structural elements is, in principle, possible, and the rate of substitution could reach the whole part of coarse aggregates obtaining benefits both from an economical and environmental point of view.