The influence of ingredients on the properties of reactive powder concrete: A review

Abstract

Reactive Powder Concrete is a type of ultra-high-performance concrete. Improvement of microstructure, elimination of coarse aggregate, particle packing, and toughness enhancement are the main principles of RPC development. To achieve these principles, RPC is characterized by the inclusion of high cement content and pozzolanic materials that make in the other hand its production highly cost and non-environmentally friendly. This work reviewed the principals of developing RPC, the constituent materials, curing techniques and the constituent percentages that affect the compressive strength. The improvement of concrete microstructure, particle packing and toughness properties of RPC are briefly outlined along with the incorporated constituent materials. Curing techniques and the mixture design of RPC are also clearly highlighted. In this study, the impact of using different percentages of the constituent materials of RPC and their available alternatives on compressive strength under different curing regimes are presented. It was showed that curing of RPC considered to be very important aspect in its development as it significantly affects the reactivity of its constituent. It was noticed that applying autoclave curing and using low cement dosage can achieve higher compressive strength results than applying steam curing. It was concluded also that the enhancement percentage in compressive strength can reaches 33% when using fly ash with 40% cement replacement under autoclave curing. It was observed that the enhancement percentage in compressive strength can reaches 45% when using rice husk ash with 30% silica fume replacement under steam curing Volumetric changes are considered the main problematic properties that prevent the wide use of RPC. Verifications are required to clarify mixing different quartz powder to quartz sand and its impact on RPC compressive strength by studying its microstructure.