Durability Evaluation of Medium and High Strength Concrete : Influence of GGBS on Durability Properties

Concrete is a widely-used material in construction industry, because it has naturally and easily available ingredients like cement aggregate and water. Production of cement creates environmental problem like emission of carbon dioxide in the production process of cement. So, there is serious need to find ways and means to reduce carbon dioxide emission. To overcome this problem Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag, which is a pozzolanic material can be used as a partial replacement to cement. The main components of GGBS are Calcium Oxide (30-50%), Silicon dioxide (28-38%), Aluminium Oxide (8-24%), and Magnesium Oxide (1- 18%). In general, increase in Calcium Oxide content of the slag increases slag basicity and therefore improves the compressive strength. As it is available from the literature, strength and durability are the two important mechanical properties to make reliable concrete. Many investigations are available on the strength properties of GGBS concrete with different replacement levels of GGBS. However, durability studies on medium and high strength concrete over different replacement levels of GGBS are limited.