A Taguchi approach for investigating the engineering properties of concretes incorporating barite, colemanite, basaltic pumice and ground blast furnace slag

Natural and artificial mineral additives have been frequently used for improving the physical, mechanical and durability properties of concrete in recent years. In this study four different mineral additives were used which are barite, colemanite, basaltic pumice and ground granulated blast furnace slag (BFS). Each mineral additive was used one by one and binary, ternary and quaternary combinations. Utilization of these mineral additives as fine aggregates and cement replacement material was investigated and the effect of these materials on compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, ultrasonic sound velocity, capillary water absorption and Böhme abrasion resistance were examined. The Taguchi method was also used to determine the optimum working conditions for each parameter and to reduce the number of experiments. Besides, contribution of each material on test results was also determined by ANOVA. According to the analysis, it was seen that blast furnace slag and colemanite were the two most effective parameters on results in general.