Studying the production process and mechanical properties of reactive powder concrete: a Hong Kong study

Abstract

Reactive powder concrete is a relatively new cementitious material. Its main features include a high percentage ingredient of Portland cement, very low water-to-binder (cement + silica fume) ratio, a high dosage of superplasticiser and the presence of very fine crushed quartz and silica fume. Coarse aggregate in normal aggregate concrete is completely replaced by fine quartz sand with particle sizes ranging from 150 to 600 ìm. Reactive powder concrete is characterised by ultra-high performance in mechanical properties, particularly in compressive strength; and this could be of tremendous interest to construction practitioners. However, production of reactive powder concrete is not yet available in Hong Kong and limited research is available in this area. This study is an attempt to produce reactive powder concrete using local materials under laboratory conditions. Concrete designed from reactive powder concrete and high-performance concrete is experimentally conducted and compared. The results show that the compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and static modulus of elasticity are found to be significantly higher than that of high-performance concrete using the same water-to-binder ratio. It is noted that the rate of strength development of the reactive powder concrete samples is greater than that of high-performance concrete. The difference in strength at a later age is even bigger. Compressive strength of about 200 MPa could even be achieved in 3 days for the reactive powder concrete samples when the samples were heat-treated at a temperature of about 2508C for 16 h, which can be explained by the formation of xonotlite under scanning electron microscopy investigation.

An Experimental Model on the Mechanical Properties of Reactive Powder Concrete by using Cement Replacement of Glass Powder

“…Several researchers accomplishes the observations on RPC material in past, conducts the attractive survey on definite materials. Analysts have considered on picking fixings, decision of relieving administration, molecule pressing of blend [3] built up a ultra-high quality pliable cement composed RPC material with essential standards of improving the constituent based on wiping out of the unrefined total, upgrading the micro-structure by pre-set affability treatment, likewise, flexibility and rigidity of cement is expanded by fusing little, large ductile, straight microfibers [4]. Two kinds of cements are produced and assigned as RPC material 200 and RPC material 800.…”

Reactive powder concrete based on multicomponent cement systems with multilevel optimization of the disperse composition

“…From the definition of RPC, a fine aggregate for concrete is taken in two or three fractions [9][10][11]14]. For example, a coarse fraction of an average of 0.3 mm in an amount of 80% and a small fraction of 0.12 mm -20%, which provides a significant reduction in its intergranular voids.…”

A Study on Properties of Reactive Powder Concrete

“…The first UHPC road bridge was designed and constructed at Bourg-les-Valence in France in 2001 [2]. The preparation and performance of UHPC have been investigated in other literatures [3][4][5].…”

“…Based on the experimental results, it is found that reactive powder concrete with a water-to-binder ratio of 0.2, superplasticizer dosage of 2.5%, 150-600 micron quartz sand cured at 27 ᵒ C in water condition provides the best results in terms of mechanical and composite properties as well as for practical and economical reasons, although heat treatment of the reactive powder concrete can result in a significant increase in compressive strength. K.M.Ng et al (2010) [4] attempt to produce reactive powder concrete using local materials under laboratory conditions. Concrete designed from reactive powder concrete and high-performance concrete is experimentally conducted and compared.…”