Performance of reactive powder concrete produced using local materials

Abstract EN

Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) is a new family of high strength cements based composites that achieves high levels of compressive strength.

The introduction of the RPC opened new applications for engineers and researchers.

This paper presents an experimental program of two phases.

The first phase included 36 mixes to investigate the possibility of producing RPC using materials available in the local Egyptian market.

Also, optimizing the content of the constituent materials of RPC was studied.

Key variables were water / cement ratio, quartz, silica fume and steel balls.

The second phase included six mixes, M1 to M6, to evaluate the structural properties of reactive powder concrete.

In addition, the effect of curing regime and some durability aspects, such as drying shrinkage and sulphate attack, were investigated.

The results demonstrated that reactive powder concrete can be produced using materials available in the local Egyptian market.

A compressive strength up to 160 N / mm2 and a flexural strength up to 46 N / mm2 were achieved.

The reactive powder concrete showed better durability in terms of resistance to sulphate attack and drying shrinkage.

The dominant role of the curing regime on the performance of reactive powder concrete was highlighted.