*2.1. Materials*

The materials employed in the manufacturing of the mortar specimens were Portland cement CEM I/42.5 R [31] (Table 1), silica sand specified as "siliceous rolled aggregate 0/4" (Table 2), urban drinking water, retardant SikaTard, calcium chloride (CaCl2), and ladle furnace slag (Table 3).


**Table 1.** Main properties of Portland cement.

**Table 2.** Characterization of the sand used in the specimens.

**Table 3.** Physical properties and chemical composition of ladle furnace slag (LFS).


Taking into account the results obtained in other research work [25], the following guidelines for dosages were considered:





Two series of mortar test specimens were manufactured: one used as a standard test specimen (MCC) and another in which part of the cement and sand was replaced by LFS (MCE) (Table 4). During kneading, chloride ions were added in the form of calcium chloride, corresponding to 0%, 0.4%, 0.8%, 1.2%, and 2% by weight of cement.

