Construction and Building Materials 77 (2015) 233–240

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Construction and Building Materials

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Studies on ultra high performance concrete incorporating copper slag as

fine aggregate
P.S. Ambily a,⇑, C. Umarani b, K. Ravisankar a, Prabhat Ranjan Prem a, B.H. Bharatkumar a, Nagesh R. Iyer a
a
CSIR-Structural Engineering Research Centre, Taramani, Chennai, India
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Anna University, Chennai, India

h i g h l i g h t s

 Alternate aggregate system for ultra high performance concrete (UHPC).

 Complete replacement of natural aggregate by waste copper slag in UHPC.
 Optimization of granular mixture by suitable separation and particle packing.

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

Article history: This paper investigates the technical feasibility of using copper slag as fine aggregate replacement in ultra
Received 24 June 2014 high performance concrete (UHPC). The studies demonstrated that it is possible to produce UHPC having
Received in revised form 15 November 2014 compressive strength greater than 150 MPa by incorporation of copper slag. The complete replacement of
Accepted 27 December 2014
standard sand by copper slag resulted in a maximum decrease in 28-day compressive strength of about
Available online 10 January 2015
15–25% whereas, the flexural strength, fracture energy recorded was of the similar order. It can be
concluded from the results that use of copper slag as fine aggregate in UHPC is technically viable.
Keywords:
Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Copper slag
Ultra high performance concrete
Alternate aggregate
Compressive strength
Flexural strength
Fracture energy

1. Introduction
Natural resources are depleting worldwide at the same time
new by products are being generated by various industries which
could have a promising future in construction industry as partial
or full substitute of either cement or aggregates. Copper slag, a
waste resulting from the copper manufacturing process, is one of
the promising industrial by products among them. To produce
every tonne of copper, approximately 2.2–3.0 tonnes copper slag
is generated as a byproduct material [1,2]. Current options of
management of this slag are recycling, production of value added
products and disposal in slag dumps or stockpiles. Copper slag is
being used as a cement replacement material [2,3], fine aggregate
replacement material [4–9] and coarse aggregate replacement
material [10] in concrete depends upon the properties of the
material. Slags containing <0.8% copper are either discarded as
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 044 22549153 (O), +91 044 24454293 (R),
mobile: +91 9444042805; fax: +91 044 22541508.
E-mail addresses: ambilyps@serc.res.in, ambilypshanker@gmail.com (P.S. Ambily).
waste or sold cheaply [11,12]. Several studies have been reported
by investigators from other countries on the use of copper slag in
cement concrete and mortar [13–15] and few studies on high
strength concrete and high performance concrete (HPC) [16–19].
However, there is not much research done in India concerning
the incorporation of copper slag in high strength concrete.
During 1930’s onwards much research work has been done,
aimed at achieving cementitious matrix materials with high
mechanical performance [20–23]. Research over the past decade
has yielded a new classification of highly resilient concrete, called
reactive powder concrete (RPC), with compressive strengths
comparable to that of some steels. Now labeled and classified as
ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concretes (UHPFRC), these
materials address many of the durability performance deficiencies
associated with both normal strength concrete (NSC) and HPC [24].
Several studies were reported on UHPC using different materials,
its mechanical and durability properties as well as application
[25–30]. In recent years, UHPFRC has been successfully applied
to dam, repair, bridge deck overlays, coupling beams in high rise
building and other specialized structures [31]. But in our country,

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2014.12.092
0950-0618/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
234 P.S. Ambily et al. / Construction and Building Materials 77 (2015) 233–240

so far, there are no applications for these concretes and their

implementation is still exceptional, primarily because of their high
cost. The sustainable development for construction involves the
use of non-conventional and innovative materials, and reusing of
waste materials in order to compensate the lack of natural
resources and to find alternative ways for conserving the environ-
ment. Hence this research was performed to evaluate the potential
use of copper slag as sand replacement in the production of UHPC,
so that, UHPC may be made more affordable to a wider variety of
applications.

2. UHPC constituents

The constituents of UHPC include Portland cement, silica fume,

quartz powder, fine aggregate (Ennore sand, copper slag), steel
fibers, superplasticizer and water. Each of the components in UHPC
Fig. 1. Sieve analysis of copper slag.
aids in optimizing the material properties, thus contributing to its
extraordinary strength. The cement used in this study was 53
grade ordinary Portland cement conforming to IS: 12269: 1987
[32] equivalent to ASTM C 150/Type I. Densified silica fume con- Table 2
Chemical properties of copper slag.
forms to ASTM C 1240-97 [33] with a specific gravity of 2.2 was
used to supplement the cementitious content in the mix for the Sl. no. Chemical component % of chemical component
high strength requirement. Quartz powder is maximal for a 1 SiO2 25.84
particle size of between 5 and 25 lm and with a specific gravity 2 Fe2O3 68.29
2.61. Ennore sand (ES) is the standard sand as per IS 650 – 1991 3 Al2O3 0.22
4 CaO 0.15
[34], grade I (2–1 mm), grade II (1–0.5 mm) and grade III
5 Na2O 0.58
(0.5–0.09 mm), with a specific gravity of 2.65 is used. Since no 6 K2O 0.23
coarse aggregate is introduced into the mix, the sand contributes 7 LoI 6.59
the largest particle size in the granular mixture. Copper slag (CS) 8 Mn2O3 0.22
9 TiO2 0.41
used in this work was brought from Sterlite industries Ltd.,
10 SO3 0.11
Tuticorin. The fiber used in this study is straight brass coated steel 11 CuO 1.20
fibers with 0.16 mm in diameter and 13 mm in length and having 12 Sulphide sulphur 0.25
tensile strength of around 2000 MPa. Ordinary tap water was used 13 Insoluble residue 14.88
for mixing and curing all the concrete specimens considered. The 14 Chloride 0.018

superplasticizer used in this study was Poly Acrylic Ester based

high-range water-reducer (HRWR-Glenium 8045).
2.1. Physical and chemical properties of copper slag
The copper slag is a black glassy particle and granular in nature
and has a similar particle size range like sand. The bulk density of
granulated copper slag is varying from 1.9 to 2.15 g/cc. The free
moisture content present in the copper slag was found to be less
than 0.5% and the presence of silica is about 26%, which is desir-
able since it is one of the constituents of the natural fine aggregate
used in normal concreting operations. Table 1 shows the physical
properties of copper slag. The specific gravity and water
absorption for copper slag and sand were determined as per IS
2386 Part III [35].
The higher specific gravity of copper slag compared to conven-
tional sand results in production of UHPC with higher density,
when used as sand substitution. Due to the low water absorption
of copper slag would demand less water than that required by sand
in the concrete mix. Therefore, it is expected that the free water
content in concrete matrix will increase as the copper slag content
increases which consequently will lead to increase in the workabil-
ity of the concrete. Copper slag of different grades was prepared by
sieving (similar to standard sand (Ennore sand) that grade I:
2–1 mm, grade II: 1–0.5 mm, grade III: 0.5–.09 mm). Fig. 1 shows
the sieve analysis of copper slag done as per IS 383-1970 [36]
.The fineness modulus was found to be 3.43.
2.2. Chemical composition of copper slag
Copper slag samples were analyzed for constituent oxides
including minor oxides and heavy elements besides mineral
phases. The results of chemical analysis are shown in Table 2.
3. Research methodology

Table 1
In the present investigation two types of UHPC were taken, one
Physical properties of copper slag.
with local sand (standard sand) as aggregate system and the other
Physical properties Copper slag with complete replacement of standard sand with copper slag as
Particle shape Irregular aggregate. A schematic representation of the methodology adopted
Appearance Black and glassy is shown in Fig. 2.
Type Air cooled
Specific gravity 3.37
Percentage of voids 43.20% 3.1. Optimisation of granular materials
Bulk density 2.08 g/cc
Fineness modulus 3.43 Advanced technologies like UHPC require a specific granulo-
Water absorption 0.3–0.4%
metric composition that reduces the void fraction in the dry
Moisture content 0.1%
mixture to obtain a harder and less porous concrete it will in turn
 P.S. Ambily et al. / Construction and Building Materials 77 (2015) 233–240 235

UHPC

Alternate filler-Copper
slag

Physical and chemical

characterization

Separation into
Grade1,Grade 2 and
Grade 3

Fig. 3. Binary packing densities of ES.

Particle Packing
Approach

Optimum packing
density

Development
of mixes

Evaluation of Fresh &

Hardened properties

UHPC-CS
Fig. 4. Binary packing densities of CS.

Fig. 2. Methodology adopted.

reduce the number of trial mixes. The main purpose of optimiza-
tion of the granular material is to arrive at a particular combination
of graded materials which can give maximum packing density so
that its addition with binder can result in maximum compressive
strength of the mix. To obtain an optimum packing density (PD)
for CS, the material was separated into three grades similar to
standard sand size fractions i.e., grade 1 (G1)-coarse, grade 2
(G2)-medium and grade 3 (G3)-fine. Particle packing was done
by varying the different percentage of copper slag in three combi-
nation namely, coarse (G1) and medium (G2), medium (G2) and
fine (G3), fine (G3) and coarse (G1). For every combination, packing
has been done by three ways namely, loose (shovelling), tamped
(Rodding) and vibration (using a vibration table) as per ASTM C
29-09. Ternary combination was prepared for selected percentage
of G1, G2 and G3. The procedure for determining maximum PD of
Table 3
Optimum packing densities of ES and CS.
different grades of sand is as follows: initially, the unitary PD of
standard sand or copper slag was determined (G1, G2 and G3).
Then the PD of binary combinations were determined (G1G2,
G2G3 and G1G3). Based on the results of the unitary and binary
packing the optimum compaction method was chosen (Vibra-
tion-VPD) and ternary combinations was prepared by using G1,
G2 and G3 in selected percentage combinations (G1G2G3). Table 3
gives the details of the optimum packing densities for unitary,
binary and ternary combination.
From the packing studies the maximum packing density was
found to be for vibration packing. Figs. 3 and 4 shows the binary
packing densities of ES and CS which gives optimum packing.
Copper slag of grade 1 and grade 3 combinations has given the
maximum density. Based on the packing density, binary and ter-
nary combinations which gives the maximum packing densities
was chosen for trial mix preparation. Then five trial mixes each
were carried out at using ES and CS. Two trial mixes were done
without fibres i.e., G1 (40%), G3 (60%), and G1 (33%), G2 (30%),
G3 (37%) and other three trial mixes were done with fibres i.e.,
G1 (50%) G3 (50%), G1 (60%) G3 (40%) and G1 (70%) G3 (30%).

Packing Material %Combination VPD 4. Mix composition

Unitary G1 (ES) 100 0.612
Unitary G2 (CS) 100 0.641 For the last few years CSIR-Structural Engineering Research
Binary G1G2 (ES) 70–30 0.639 Center, Chennai, is working on UHPC [37–39]. Five mix proportions
Binary G1G2 (CS) 30–70 0.649
Binary G2G3 (ES) 20–80 0.637
each with Ennore sand ((1E–5E)/copper slag (1C–5C) were tried to
Binary G2G3 (CS) 30–70 0.671 arrive at a final mix. The details of the mix proportions chosen for
Binary G1G3 (ES) 60–40 0.672 UHPC are provided in Table 4. In this study, copper slag was used
Binary G1G3 (CS) 70–30 0.683 as a full replacement (100%) for fine aggregate. To get a high pack-
Ternary G1G2G3 (ES) 33–30–37 0.670
ing density and pozzolanic property of the cementitious system,
Ternary G1G2G3 (CS) 33–30–37 0.680
the dosage of silica fume and quartz powder chosen was 25% and
236 P.S. Ambily et al. / Construction and Building Materials 77 (2015) 233–240

Table 4
UHPC mix proportions of trial mixes.
Collection Mixing of
Materials Mix Mix Mix Mix Mix cement, quartz
of materials powder, silica
1E/1C 2E/2C 3E/3C 4E/4C 5E/5C
fume and fine
Cement 1 1 1 1 1
Silica fume 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25
Quartz powder 0.40 0.40 0.40 0.40 0.40
Ennore sand/copper slag 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1 Addition of 70% of the water
Grade I 40% 33% 50% 60% 70%
Grade II – 30% – – –
Grade III 60% 37% 50% 40% 30%
Steel fibers – – 2% 2% 2%
Superplasticizer 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% Proper Continue
Water to cement ratio 0.21 0.21 0.22 0.22 0.22 blending Mixing
Water to binder* ratio 0.13 0.13 0.13 0.13 0.13
*
Binder = cement + silica fume + quartz powder.

Addition of Super plasticizer and

Table 5 remaining water
UHPC mix proportions for optimized mixes (kg/m3).

Materials C1 CF E1 EF
Cement 847.5 788.6 847.5 788.6
Silica fume 235 197.2 235 197.2 Consistent
Quartz powder 339 315.4 339 315.4 flowable Mix Continue
Mixing
Copper slag 932 868 – –
Ennore sand – – 932 868
Fibre reinforced Mix
Grade I 652 608 652 608 Addition of
Grade III 280 260 280 260 steel and fibres
Steel fibers – 157.7 – 157.7
Superplasticizer 21.7 19.7 21.7 19.7 Stop
Water 186.4 173.5 186.4 173.5

Fig. 5. Mixing of UHPC.

40% by weight of cement [37,38]. The water to cement (w/c) ratio
selected as 0.22. Micro steel fibres (brass coated) were used at a
dosage of 2% by volume of concrete. To improve workability at
lower w/b ratios, a high range water reducer (HRWR) was used
in the study.
4.1. Optimized mix
Based on the trials, mix 5E/5C grade I (70%) and grade III (30%)
of copper slag/Ennore sand was used for developing the final UHPC.
Two mixes with the same proportion of cement, silica fume, quartz
powder and Ennore sand/copper slag was prepared with and with-
out fibres i.e., copper slag without fibers (C1), copper slag with
fibers (CF), Ennore sand without fibers (E1) and Ennore sand with
fibers (EF) were prepared. The details of the mixes are tabulated in
Table 5.
5. Mixing of UHPC
5.1. Preparation of trial mixes
A Planetary mixer machine (10 kg capacity) was used to mix the
UHPC trial mixes. The speed can be varied from stir (slow), speed
(low), speed 2 (medium), speed 3 (high) having agitator RPM of
59, 107,198 and 365 respectively. The dry binder powder was
poured in the bowl and dry mixing was done for 6–8 min when
the mixer was running at slow speed. Around 70% of the water
was added and the level of mixing was increased to medium,
which was continued for another 6–8 min. When proper blending
of ingredient was observed, SP and remaining water were added
and mixed at high speed for 2–3 min to get flowable mix. The level
of mixing is then changed to slow speed where a random distribu-
tion of fibres was done taking approximately 3 min. Finally at high
speed the ingredients were fully mixed for 1 min to get even distri-
bution of all ingredients. For preparation of final mix planetary
mixer machine of 300 kg capacity was used. The workability of
the mixes with Ennore sand and copper slag was found to be in
the range of 200–210 mm and 230–240 mm respectively. The
workability was determined using flow table test as per ASTM
C230/C230M. The mixing process is shown in form of flowchart
as shown in Fig. 5.
6. Casting of UHPC specimens
6.1. Trial mix
The UHPC specimens were cast from each mix which consists of
30 cubes of (70.6  70.6  70.6 mm) for compressive strength. Five
trial mixes as shown in Table 5 were carried out at different pro-
portions using Ennore sand and copper slag. First two trial mixes
were done without fibers i.e., grade I (40%), grade III (60%) and I
(33%), II (30%), III (37%). Next three trial mixes were done with
fibers i.e., grade I (50%), grade III (50%), grade I (60%), grade III
(40%) and grade I (70%), grade III (30%). Totally ten trial mixes were
done and these specimens were cured under heat and water curing
for a period of 7, 14 and 28 days.
6.2. Optimized mix
The UHPC specimens were cast from each mix consisted of six-
teen cubes each of 100  100  100 mm, 70.6  70.6  70.6 mm
and six beams of 70  70  350 mm size. Casting was carried out
using the optimized mix proportion by grade I (70%) and grade
III (30%) of copper slag and Ennore sand with and without steel
fibers. These specimens were cured for a period of 3, 7, 14 and
28 days.
7. Specimen preparation
For all mixs after mixing, the fresh UHPC was transferred into
steel moulds in three layers and compacted using a vibrating table
 P.S. Ambily et al. / Construction and Building Materials 77 (2015) 233–240
Fig. 6. Preparation of UHPC specimens.
for about 20–30 s. The vibrating table has dimensions of 2  1 m
with load capacity, frequency and amplitude being 1500 kg,
66 Hz and 0.8 mm, respectively. The specimens after casting is pre-
sented in Fig. 6. After one day the specimens were demoulded and
subjected to two curing regimes.
8. Curing regime
A thermal cyclic chamber is used for heat curing, in which the
temperature can rise up to 300 ± 1 °C. The rate of rise and drop
in temperature is 2 °C/min. Curing regime used in the present
study was finalised based on a series of trials. Two curing regimes
were used for comparison purposes (Fig. 7). One after 24 h the
specimens were demoulded and kept it in water till the age of test-
ing. The other one was, after 24 h of casting the specimens were
demoulded and were subjected to 150 °C for 48 h and then the
specimens were undisturbed till the temperature comes down to
ambient temperature conditions then it is cured under water till
the respective ages of testing. In the case of optimised mixes, after
heat curing, before putting in water three specimens from each
mixes were tested for determination of 3 day compressive strength
[45].
9. Tests on UHPC
9.1. Compressive strength test
Compression test on UHPC were carried out on standard cube
specimens of size 100  100  100 mm and 70.6  70.6 
70.6 mm tested after curing at the ages of 3, 7, 14 and 28 days
for each mix according to ASTM C109 [40]. The average of five
cubes was adopted for each age for the trial mixes and three cubes
was for the optimised mixes. The compressive load is applied using
a compression testing machine of 3000 KN capacity.
Fig. 7. Curing regimes-water curing, oven curing.
237
9.2. Flexural strength test
The flexural performance of UHPC is measured using the test
method as per ASTM C 1609 standard [41] given for fibre-
reinforced concrete. The flexural strength is obtained by testing a
simply supported beam under third-point loading using a closed-
loop, servo controlled testing system.
9.3. Fracture energy test
The fracture energy was determined by testing the simply sup-
ported notched beam specimens under centre point loading. The
centre-loaded notched concrete beams were tested under closed
loop servo-controlled CTM having a capacity of 3000 kN, with the
rate of opening being 0.0005 mm/s. The crack mouth opening dis-
placement (CMOD) was measured by a clip gage attached with
knife edges epoxied to the bottom flange on either side of the star-
ter notch. The LVDT is rigidly fastened to the reference frame with
the moving tips lying on a plate fastened to one of the two halves
of the specimen. The tests were carried on beam of size
(70  70  350) mm for mix. Notch to depth ratio of the beam
specimen was 0.3 and the span is 300 mm. The deflection observed
from the beam and the clip gauge was recorded using data logger.
The critical stress intensity factor (Kic), and fracture energy (GF)
was calculated as per RILEM recommendations.
10. Test results and discussion
10.1. Trial mix results
The average of 7, 14 and 28 days compressive strengths for dif-
ferent trial UHPC samples are shown in Tables 6 and 7. Table 6
shows the development of compressive strength of UHPC using
Ennore sand with and without heat treatment. Similarly, Table 7
shows the development of the compressive strength of UHPC using
copper slag with and without heat treatment. Using Ennore sand,
the highest compressive strength was 182 MPa and 202 MPa
respectively, for the mixes with fibres, with and without heat
treatment (mix 5E) at age of 28 days. But mixes 1E and 2E gave
the lowest compressive strength at the age of 28 days without
fibers. After 28 days, the heat cured specimens had a very high
compressive strength than the water cured specimens.
The replacement of copper slag i.e., grade I and grade III as sand
replacement material in UHPC had good influence on the compres-
sive strength development. The highest compressive strength was
achieved by mix 5C with 70% grade I and 30% grade III replacement
of copper slag, which was found about 143 MPa and 152 MPa at
age of 28 days, with fibers. However, mixs with (40% I, 60% III)
and (33% I, 30% II, 37% III) replacement of copper slag (Mixes 1C
and 2C) gave the lowest compressive strength 88 MPa and
238 P.S. Ambily et al. / Construction and Building Materials 77 (2015) 233–240

Table 6 Table 8
Results for compressive strength of UHPC with Ennore sand. Ratio of the compressive strength of 7 cm cubes to 10 cm cubes at various ages.

Mix Compressive strength (N/mm2) Compressive strength (N/mm2) Mix ID Compressive strength (N/mm2)
Without heat treatment With heat treatment
3 days 7 days 14 days 28 days
7 days 14 days 28 days 7 days 14 days 28 days
C1 0.980984 1.026769 1.151936 1.074893
1E 85.8 91.2 102.6 91.6 94.8 108.1 CF 1.006163 1.028056 0.996795 1.02402
2E 81.2 82.6 85.1 80.4 81.9 82.3 E1 0.986696 1.006843 1.098214 1.073171
3E 110.9 133.6 152.3 134.9 152.3 164.8 EF 1 0.9375 1.422764 1.110465
4E 109.4 147.3 167.9 146.4 164.1 181.0
5E 132.0 146.2 182.4 154.0 183.5 202.0

compressive strength compared with the UHPC mix without fibres.

Table 7 The highest compressive strength of 172 MPa for mixes with
Results for compressive strength of UHPC with copper slag. Ennore sand and 158 MPa for Copper slag was recorded.
Mix Compressive strength (N/mm2) Compressive strength (N/mm2) To understand the specimen size effect on compressive strength
Without heat treatment With heat treatment of UHPC mixes for present study, ratio of compressive strength of
7 days 14 days 28 days 7 days 14 days 28 days UHPC cubes at the various ages for mixes, has been given in Table 8.
The table shows the ratio of the compressive strength of 7 cm
1C 86.7 86.8 87.9 84.2 92.3 100.5
2C 82.3 87.8 89.7 88.4 89.7 92.9 cubes to 10 cm cubes. The results show that cube specimens of
3C 109.0 110.0 128.3 90.0 92.0 134.8 70 mm size produce higher compressive strength compared to
4C 92.0 122.0 137.4 102.0 110.0 141.2 100 mm cubes at the age of 28 days. Fig. 9 shows compression
5C 107.0 131.0 143.8 112.0 134.0 152.0 testing and the failure pattern of UHPC with copper slag.

10.2.2. Flexural strength of UHPC

101 MPa at the age of 28 days without fibers. The highest compres-
sive strength using copper slag and Ennore sand was 152 MPa and
202 MPa at the age of 28 days. The reduction in compressive
strength of mixes with copper slag as reported by various research-
ers [42–44], may be due to the lower water absorption character-
istics of the material, which can result in an increase in free water
contents and leads to formation of internal voids and capillary
channels in concrete [44].
10.2. Optimized mix results
Based on the results of trial mix, 5C and 5E with heat treatment
are selected as optimized mix and further study on this mixes are
reported here after.
10.2.1. Cube compressive strength
To explore the effect of specimen size on compressive strength:
100 mm cube, 70 mm cube were employed. Fig. 8 shows the com-
pressive strength results of the optimised mixes.
Strength results of 70 mm cubes using Ennore sand and copper
slag shows that, UHPC mixes with fibers showed 81% to 95% higher
compressive strength compared with the UHPC mix without fibres.
The highest compressive strength of UHPC was 191 MPa for mixes
with Ennore sand and 162 MPa for mixes with copper slag.
Strength results of 100 mm cubes using Ennore sand and
copper slag, UHPC mixes with fibers showed 79% to 86% higher
The flexural strength of the UHPC was ascertained by four point
bending test with beams of size b  h  l = 70  70  350 mm. A
total of 12 prisms were cast each with Ennore sand and with cop-
per slag (with and without fibers). The plain concrete failed
abruptly at the end of linearity. The fiber reinforced UHPC flexural
strength increased about twice compared with the flexural
strength obtained on UHPC without fibres as shown in Fig. 10.
Regarding the post crack behaviour, ductile material behaviour
was observed for UHPC with fiber. After cracking, a main crack
expanding along the high direction of the beam was observed.
Until the last step of loading, fiber reinforced UHPC beam was
not broken, the steel fibers were still connected, the fractures
planes and the plane of fracture are regular. The mean flexural
stress of specimens with copper slag undergone heat treatment
was 12.34 MPa without fibers, and this value was increased to
32.43 MPa with fibres. For specimens with Ennore sand, the mean
flexural strength was 12.4 MPa without fibers and 32.58 MPa with
fibers.
10.2.3. Fracture energy of UHPC prisms
Tests were performed on notched UHPC prisms (with and with-
out fibres using copper slag and Ennore sand) three numbers each
to determine some of the basic behaviours of individual cracks. The
fracture energy is calculated using linear elastic fracture mechanics
approach. The area under the load – deflection plot (Fig. 11)
indirectly measures the fracture energy. The crack mouth opening

Fig. 8. Compressive strength of 100 mm and 70 mm cubes.

 P.S. Ambily et al. / Construction and Building Materials 77 (2015) 233–240 239

(a) Compression testing (b) C1 specimen (c) CF specimen

Fig. 9. Compression testing of mixes with copper slag and failure pattern of C1, CF.

Fig. 10. Flexural strength of UHPC.

Table 9
Fracture energy of UHPC mixes.

C1 CS E1 ES
Load (KN)

C1 Length (L) 350 350 350 350

EF Span (S) 300 300 300 300
E1 Depth (D) 70 70 70 70
Breadth (B) 70 70 70 70
CF
Notch/depth 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3
Peak load 3162 8427 4034 8776
Kic 7.85 20.92 10.01 21.79
Wf (n-mm) 578 3779 881 4040
Deflection(mm) Gf (J/m2) 168.65 1101.89 256.99 1177.98

Fig. 11. Load vs deflection of notched UHPC specimens.

(Gf) the higher the concrete ductility. The results clearly signifies
the increase in Gf and Kic due to presence of fibres. The fracture
energy of the specimens lie in the order C1 < E1 < CF < EF as seen
in Table 9.

11. Conclusions
Load (KN)

The following conclusions were made based on the studies

reported in this paper.

 Studies on particle packing reveals that vibration packing will

CMOD(mm)
Fig. 12. Load vs CMOD of notched UHPC specimens.
displacement was determined using a clip gauge and is plotted in
Fig. 12. Fracture parameters indicate the behaviour of concrete
ductility and energy absorbing capacity. The higher the energy
give the optimum packing density for granular materials for
unitary, binary and ternary combinations.
 The optimum packing density for copper slag (CS) obtained in
the binary combination of G1 (70%) and G3 (30%).
 CS, a locally available waste material, makes it possible to pro-
duce UHPC with a mean compressive strength of greater
150 MPa at 28 days.
 The mean compressive strength of UHPC using the CS and
Ennore sand (ES) was 162 MPa and 191 MPa, respectively at
the age of 28 days.
240 P.S. Ambily et al. / Construction and Building Materials 77 (2015) 233–240
 UHPC with fibres (UHPFRC) generally exhibit high fracture
toughness (5–7 times) compared to UHPC without fibre.
 Complete replacement of standard sand by copper slag resulted
in a maximum reduction of compressive strength of around
15–25%. This may be due to the high free water presence in
the case of CS based mixes for the same proportion compared
to ES mixes. The reduction in mechanical properties when
100% standard sand is replaced by copper slag can be taken into
account by suitable modification in the mix.
 Results obtained with the CS shows a very promising future for
the manufacture of the UHPFRC. As this waste material is
produced industrially, its availability and its low price would
favour for its development.
Acknowledgements
This paper is being published with the kind permission of the
Director, CSIR-Structural Engineering Research Centre (CSIR-SERC)
Chennai. The authors specially thank Ms. K. Jeyashankari, ME
student for her valuable help for generation of test data. Authors
gratefully acknowledge the support of technical staff at Advanced
Materials Laboratory (AML), CSIR-SERC, Chennai during the exper-
imental work.
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