Radiation Shielding Property of Concrete Using the Rapidly Cooled Steel Slag from Oxidizing Process in the Converter Furnace as Fine Aggregate

Each year, about four million tons of steel slag, a by-product produced during the manufacture of steel by refining pig iron in the converter furnace, is generated. It is difficult to recycle this steel slag as aggregate for concrete because the reaction with water and free-CaO in steel slag results in a volume expansion that leads to cracking. However, the steel slag used in this study is atomized using an air-jet method, which rapidly changes the melting substance at high temperature into a solid at a room temperature and prevents free-CaO from being generated in steel slag. This rapidly-cooled steel slag has a spherical shape and is even heavier than natural aggregate, making it suitable for the aggregate of radiation shielding concrete. This study deals with the radiation shielding property of concrete that uses the rapidly-cooled steel slag from the oxidizing process in the converter furnace as fine aggregate. It was shown that the radiation shielding performance of concrete mixed with rapidly-cooled steel slag is even more superior than that of ordinary concrete.