• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.104-110
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• 2015

It is known that polymer concretes are 8~10 times more expensive than ordinary Portland cement concretes; therefore, in the production of polymer concrete products, it is very important to reduce the amount of polymer binders used because this occupies the most of the production cost of polymer concretes. In order to develop a technology for the reduction of polymer binders, smooth and spherical aggregates were prepared by the atomizing technology using the oxidation process steel slag (electric arc furnace slag, EAFS) and the reduction process steel slag (ladle furnace slag, LFS) generated by steel industries. A reduction in the amount of polymer binders used was expected because of an improvement in the workability of polymer concretes as a result of the ball-bearing effect and maximum filling effect in case the polymer concrete was prepared using the smooth and spherical atomized steel slag instead of the calcium carbonate (filler) and river sand (fine aggregate) that were generally used in polymer concretes. To investigate physical properties of the polymer concrete, specimens of the polymer concrete were prepared with various proportions of polymer binder and replacement ratios of the atomized reduction process steel slag. The results showed that the compressive strengths of the specimens increased gradually along with the higher replacement ratios of the atomized steel slag, but the flexural strength showed a different maximum strength depending on the addition ratio of polymer binders. In the hot water resistance test, the compressive strength, flexural strength, bulk density, and average pore diameter decreased; but the total pore volume and porosity increased. It was found that the polymer concrete developed in this study was able to have a 19% reduction in the amount of polymer binders compared with that of the conventional product because of the remarkable improvement in the workability of polymer concretes using the spherical atomized oxidation steel slag and atomized reduction steel slag instead of the calcium carbonate and river sand.