A Feasibility Study on the Application of Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) Steel Slag for Railway Ballast Material

Taehoon Koh, Sung-Woo Moon, Hyuksang Jung, Yeonung Jeong and Sukhoon Pyo
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Taehoon Koh: New Transportation Systems Research Center, Korea Railroad Research Institute, 176 Railroad Museum Road, Uiwang-si, Gyeonggi-do 16105, Korea
Sung-Woo Moon: Department of Civil Engineering, Nazarbayev University, 53 Qabanbay Batyr Ave, Astana 010000, Kazakhstan
Hyuksang Jung: Department of Railroad Construction & Safety Engineering, Dongyang University, 145 Dongyangdaero Punggi-eup, Yeongju-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do 36040, Korea
Yeonung Jeong: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, 1 Engineering Drive 2, Singapore 117576, Singapore
Sukhoon Pyo: New Transportation Systems Research Center, Korea Railroad Research Institute, 176 Railroad Museum Road, Uiwang-si, Gyeonggi-do 16105, Korea

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 2, 1-12

Abstract: Railway ballast, for which natural crushed stone aggregates have been generally used, is an essential track component for the distribution of train loads along the rails and sleepers to the roadbed. However, the use of natural crushed stone aggregate causes environmental destruction as well as dust production in train service. This paper evaluates the feasibility of using the basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steel slag as railway ballast material. A series of physical and chemical quality tests are performed to investigate the characteristics of the materials associated with the effect of aging period due to the remaining free CaO and MgO in the BOF steel slag. Three different aging periods (i.e., 0, 3, and 6 months) are used to compare with various standards and the properties of the crushed stone aggregates. It is demonstrated that the physical and chemical properties of the BOF steel slag with different aging periods satisfy all requirements of standards sufficiently. Especially, the BOF steel slag without aging (i.e., 0 month) provides the similar physical and chemical properties, when compared to the BOF steel slag with aging (i.e., 3 and 6 months). Thus, it is possible to apply the BOF steel slag regardless of aging periods to the railway ballast materials instead of natural crushed stone aggregates.

Keywords: basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steel slag; electric arc furnace (EAF) steel slag; blast furnace (BF) iron slag; railway ballast; aging; free lime (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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