Mechanical properties and drying water loss mechanism of NaOH-activated slag/silica fume solidified waste mud

Mechanical properties and drying water loss mechanism of NaOH-activated slag/silica fume solidified waste mud | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Mechanical properties and drying water loss mechanism of NaOH-activated slag/silica fume solidified waste mud Yulun Tang, Jinsong Zhang, Song Wang, Shasha Wang, Zike Wang This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9021648/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract In this study, the synergistic curing mechanism of sodium NaOH-activated (N) slag (S)/silica fume (S) on waste mud was investigated. In this paper, orthogonal tests were used to analyze the unconfined compressive strength, stress-strain curves, pH, crack development pattern, water content change and microstructure of NSSF-cured mud specimens with different NSSF dosage and at different ages. The results showed that when the NaOH dosage was 1%~5%, the strength of the specimens showed an increasing and then decreasing trend with the increase of silica fume substitution rate; when the dosage reached 7%~9%, the strength continued to decrease with the increase of silica fume substitution rate. The strength of specimens increased with the age of maintenance, in which the enhancement effect was significant from 7 to 14 days, and the increase was weakened from 14 to 28 days. Microanalysis showed that moderate amount of silica fume could fill the pores of matrix and promote the generation of CSH gel, while high dosage of silica fume formed large pore structure with water storage and crack inhibition. When the pH value is stabilized at 12 ± 0.1, the curing agent reaches the optimal proportion. High content of alkali and silica fume can lock water to a certain extent and delay the cracking of the specimen, but the development of cracks is more rapid after cracking. The study reveals the synergistic solidification mechanism of alkali-activated silica fume / slag on slurry, which provides a theoretical basis for the practical application of solidified mud. Physical sciences/Engineering Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences Physical sciences/Materials science Alkali-activated Engineering mud Unconfined compressive strength Drying water loss Microstructure Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9021648","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":610053580,"identity":"8994d818-4ca0-4a8d-b55e-3381e4fbff76","order_by":0,"name":"Yulun Tang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Anhui University of Science and Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yulun","middleName":"","lastName":"Tang","suffix":""},{"id":610053581,"identity":"a629fcdb-5af0-4e38-a533-69d6921846d5","order_by":1,"name":"Jinsong Zhang","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA2UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACfvb2Awc+/pOQY2NvPkCcFsmeM4kHZ7DZGPPxHEsgTovBDQfjwxxsaYlyEjkGRLrsBkPCYQaewwlsEjkfb7xhsJPTbSCgg3F244HDBRKH89h43m62nMOQbGx2gIAWZpkDCYdnGBwuZmPP3SbNw3AgcRshLWwSCQaHeRIOJ7Yx5DwjTgsPWMuBtMQ2jhw24rRI8JxJODizwcaYjeeYseUcAyL8Yn+8/fCHjw0ScvLtzQ9vvKmwkyOoBc1KYqMGSQupOkbBKBgFo2BEAAC3QUavFrq8lwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Anhui University of Science and Technology","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jinsong","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""},{"id":610053582,"identity":"10e553f1-9a39-404e-b0b6-771d51d85005","order_by":2,"name":"Song Wang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"China Coal Technology \u0026 Industry Group Nanjing Design \u0026 Research Institute Co.","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Song","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":610053583,"identity":"10f393c8-ff70-4235-a171-be51d88a3fce","order_by":3,"name":"Shasha Wang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Anhui University of Science and Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Shasha","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":610053584,"identity":"24c03a94-80c1-46bd-aad5-59d291a3be0d","order_by":4,"name":"Zike Wang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Zhengzhou University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zike","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-03-03 15:08:45","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9021648/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9021648/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":106974679,"identity":"516a34ff-e5a2-41e6-9c15-f014c7e3ab03","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-15 10:34:08","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1200377,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9021648/v1_covered_613afe35-f7f0-4ea5-a42d-8d21201ab438.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Mechanical properties and drying water loss mechanism of NaOH-activated slag/silica fume solidified waste mud","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Alkali-activated, Engineering mud, Unconfined compressive strength, Drying water loss, Microstructure","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9021648/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9021648/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eIn this study, the synergistic curing mechanism of sodium NaOH-activated (N) slag (S)/silica fume (S) on waste mud was investigated. In this paper, orthogonal tests were used to analyze the unconfined compressive strength, stress-strain curves, pH, crack development pattern, water content change and microstructure of NSSF-cured mud specimens with different NSSF dosage and at different ages. The results showed that when the NaOH dosage was 1%~5%, the strength of the specimens showed an increasing and then decreasing trend with the increase of silica fume substitution rate; when the dosage reached 7%~9%, the strength continued to decrease with the increase of silica fume substitution rate. The strength of specimens increased with the age of maintenance, in which the enhancement effect was significant from 7 to 14 days, and the increase was weakened from 14 to 28 days. Microanalysis showed that moderate amount of silica fume could fill the pores of matrix and promote the generation of CSH gel, while high dosage of silica fume formed large pore structure with water storage and crack inhibition. When the pH value is stabilized at 12\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;0.1, the curing agent reaches the optimal proportion. High content of alkali and silica fume can lock water to a certain extent and delay the cracking of the specimen, but the development of cracks is more rapid after cracking. The study reveals the synergistic solidification mechanism of alkali-activated silica fume / slag on slurry, which provides a theoretical basis for the practical application of solidified mud.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Mechanical properties and drying water loss mechanism of NaOH-activated slag/silica fume solidified waste mud","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-03-26 06:04:20","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9021648/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"945fcb8f-ad17-4dd1-bb41-7d15d4858a06","owner":[],"postedDate":"March 26th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":64913141,"name":"Physical sciences/Engineering"},{"id":64913142,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences"},{"id":64913143,"name":"Physical sciences/Materials science"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-04-15T10:31:06+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-03-26 06:04:20","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-9021648","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-9021648","identity":"rs-9021648","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}