Performance investigation of blast furnace slag based cemented paste backfill under low temperature and low atmospheric pressure

To promote application of cemented backfill mining in underground mines located at high-altitude regions, there is a necessary to investigate mechanical performance of cemented paste backfill (CPB) under low temperature and low atmospheric pressure. In this study, the orthogonal experiment was first scheduled to synthesize the new cementitious material by combining industrial byproducts of blast furnace slag (BFS), carbide slag (CS), desulfurization gypsum (DG) with cement clinker (CC). Then, CPB samples were prepared with the new cementitious material and cured under different temperatures of 5, 10, 20 ℃ and atmospheric pressures of 50, 75, 101 kPa for 3, 7 14, and 28 days. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and microstructural analyses were conducted to evaluate strength and microstructure evolution of CPB. Experimental results indicate that UCS values of CPB increase with BFS, but decrease with CS and DG. The optimal proportion of the new cementitious material is determined as: 70 wt% BFS, 12 wt% CS, 1 wt% DG, and 17 wt% CC. Under curing of low temperature and low atmospheric pressure, CPB samples exhibit lower UCS values than those under 20 ℃ with 101 kPa. Especially, the coupling of low temperature and low atmospheric pressure exerts significantly adverse influence on the later strength of CPB after curing of 14 and 28 days. The declines of 57.99 % and 41.75 % are observed from UCS values of 14-day and 28-day CPB under 5 ℃ with 50 kPa, respectively. Regardless of curing temperature and atmospheric pressure, UCS values increase with the ratio of cementitious material to tailings and curing time. Low curing temperature and low atmospheric pressure reduce the hydration degree of the new cementitious material. The amount of hydration products decreases, the number of micropores (0.1 ∼ 1 μm) and the total porosity increases, as well as more loose microstructure forms among solid particles. This is the underlying reason behind performance degeneration of CPB under low temperature and low atmospheric pressure.