Influence of granulated blast furnace slag as fine aggregate on properties of cement mortar

The objective of present study is to investigate the effect of granulated blast furnace slag (GBS) as partial substitution of natural sand on behaviour of cement mortar. For this, the methods of factorial design with water cement (w/c) ratio and incorporation percentages of GBS as replacement of natural fine aggregate i.e., GBS(%) as factors are followed. The levels of factor w/c ratio are fixed at 0.4, 0.45, and 0.5 and the levels of factor GBS(%) are kept fixed as 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100%. The compressive strength (CS) of mortar after 3, 7, 14, 28, 56 and 90 days, and water absorption (WA) are chosen as responses of the study. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) of experimental results has been carried out and those are illustrated by ANOVA tables, main effect and interaction plots. The results of study depict that the selected factors have substantial influence on the strength and WA of mortar. However, the interaction of factors has no substantial impact on CS and WA of mixes.