Characterization of stockpiled Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) slag for railway ballast material application

Abstract

Railway ballast usually uses natural crushed stone to transfer the load from the rails to the ground. However, the material has a detrimental impact on the environment as the extraction of it is a destructive process, and it is also prone to degradation and fouling in rail tracks. Therefore, this research evaluates the Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) slag as an alternative to traditional ballast material in the Kazakhstani railway industry. The tested BOF slags were grouped into top and bottom stockpiled with a mean age of 3–4 years and 10 years, respectively. GOST standards were mainly utilized to analyze the feasibility of the use of BOF slag in Kazakhstan. As a result, both types of BOF slag represented complete satisfaction with the proposed standards. Therefore, the potentiality of the application of stockpiled BOF slag for railway ballast material is verified.