Mechanical behavior and fracture mechanisms of high-strength concrete incorporating porous titanium slag aggregate

Recycled titanium slag aggregate is a novel alternative to conventional concrete aggregates, and its strengthening mechanism compared to the original concrete mix is of great interest. A method combining Scanning Electron Microscopy feature extraction using convolutional neural network has been proposed and applied to elucidate the mechanical property enhancement mechanism of porous slag as a concrete aggregate. Moreover, this research has revealed that the porous surface of slag particles forms a composite reinforcement structure with the cement paste matrix, increasing the fracture energy required for failure. Through detailed numerical simulations of surface pore characteristics, the effects of surface porosity and pore depth on the overall model's fracture have been determined. The results indicate that titanium slag contains hydration catalytic components. Further, titanium slags affect fracture failure regions by increasing trans -aggregate fracture. In the concrete material characteristics of this proportion, titanium slag particles with a pore depth of 0.5 mm and a surface porosity of 19.048 % showed less area of maximum deformation region and stronger bonding ability with concrete compared to other models. Moreover, when producing concrete of equivalent volume, the utilization of titanium slag leads to lower carbon emissions and costs.