Steel Aggregates Applied to Railway Ballast

The growing demand for sustainable solutions in transportation engineering requires the development of alternative materials capable of combining technical performance, economic viability and environmental responsibility. In this context, this book presents an unprecedented methodology for the chemical stabilization of steel aggregates, obtained as co-products of the steelmaking process, with a view to their safe and efficient application as railway ballast.The book systematically addresses the fundamentals of the steelmaking process, the origin of the volumetric expansibility of steel slag and the mechanisms responsible for the physical and functional degradation of these materials when used without proper treatment. The proposed methodology is based on chemical stabilization in the liquid phase, through the controlled fusion of steel aggregate with coke oven refractory, promoting the neutralization of unstable oxides and the simultaneous improvement of mechanical, environmental and electrical properties.