Factors affecting strength of reactive

powder concrete

Project report submitted in partial fulfillment for the award of

Bachelor of Technology in civil engineering of university of Kerala

Presented by:
SANJITH R.

10403060

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

T.K.M. COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, KOLLAM-691005

UNIVERSITY OF KERALA
2014

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 Thangal Kunju Musaliar College of Engineering
Kollam, Kerala
Department of Civil Engineering

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that this project report entitled

FACTORS AFFECTING STRENGTH OF REACTIVE POWDER

CONCRETE

Is the report of project presented by SANJITH R. during the year

2014 in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of
Degree of Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering of the
University of Kerala.

Head of department Coordinator Guide

Prof. Vincent K john Mrs. Hasoona Mr. Mohammed Asim

professor Associate professor Associate professor
Dept. of Civil Engineering Dept. of Civil Engineering Dept. of Civil Engineering
TKMCE Kollam TKMCE Kollam TKMCE Kollam

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
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I would like to express our sincere gratitude for our guide Mr. Mohammed Asim, for
his valuable advices and guidance all throughout the project work. We cannot thank
you enough for patiently responding to our endless queries throughout the stages of
project.

We would also like to thank our coordinator Mrs. Hasoona for her support and
encouragement which helped us channelize our effort.

We also take this opportunity to thank all staff members of the department of civil
engineering for their co-operation during the course of project.

We also express our gratitude to Prof. Vincent K John, Head of the Department,
Department of Civil engineering.

Thanks go to all our friends and well-wishers for all the discussion, aspirations and
frustrations that we shared and for their prayers, love and support

SANJITH R

ABSTRACT

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Low flexural tensile strength of RCC member has number of undesirable
consequences for its performance as an effective building material. These include
necessity of auxiliary steel reinforcement and thick sectioned members that are both
aesthetically unappealing and consume significant quantities of aggregates. An
emerging technology with the potential to overcome these limitations is reactive
powder concrete (RPC) RPC is a cold cast cementitious material in which the
mechanical properties of the matrix are improved by suppression of the weak
interfacial transition zone normally developed around the aggregate through
improved particle packing and by refinement of the hydrated paste microstructure by
extensive use pozzolanic silica and elevated temperature curing. Tensile capacity is
provided by steel micro fibres rather than conventional reinforcement the low and non
connected porosity of RPC also render extremely durable. RPC offers the possibility
building with concrete with slender member with improved seismic response.
The present study focuses on developing RPC of compressive strength
up to 150 MPa. Along with the development of RPC, various factors affecting the
strength of RPC are studied. The 100×100×100 mm size RPC cube specimens were
cast by varying the constituent materials and cured at both normal and high
temperature before testing for their strength. It is observed from the study that w/b
ratio, silica fume content, quartz powder, high temperature curing significantly affects
the compressive strength of RPC

CONTENTS
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Chapters Page
no.
Abstract v

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 General 1

1.2 Objective and scope 2

Chapter 2 Review of literature

2.1 General 3

Chapter 3 Experimental program

3.1 General 5

3.2 Material properties

3.2.1 Cement 5

3.2.2 Silica fume 6

3.2.3 Super plasticizers 6

3.2.4 Aggregate 7

3.2.5 Quartz powder 8

3.2.5 Water 8

3.3 Mix proportion and methodology 9

3.4 Test conducted 11

Chapter 4 Results and discussions

4.1 General 12

4.2 Properties

4.2.1 Density of RPC 12

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 4.2.2 Effect of w/b ratio 12

4.2.3 Effect of silica fume percentage 14

4.2.4 Effect of addition of quartz powder 15

4.2.5 Influence of curing regime 16

Chapter 5 Conclusions

5.1 General 17

5.2 Conclusion 17

Reference 18

LIST OF FIGURES

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Sl.NO FIGURE NAME FIGURE PAGE
NO. NO.
1. Grading Curve of Fine Aggregate 3.1 7

2. Dry mix of RPC 3.2 10

3. Paste after proper mixing 3.3 10

4. Mixer for casting 3.4 10

5. Cube Compressive Strength Test 3.5 11

6. Effect of w/b ratio on compressive 4.1 13

strength

7. Effect of addition of silica fume 4.2 15

8 The effect of Quartz powder on 4.3 15

compressive strength of RPC
9 Effect of curing regime 4.4 16

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 LIST OF TABLES

SL NO. TABLE TABLE NAME PAGE

NO. NO.
1 3.1 Properties of Cement 5

2 3.2 Properties of Silica Fume 6

3 3.3 Chemical composition of Silica Fume 6

4 3.4 Properties of Ceroplast 6

5 3.5 Properties of Fine Aggregate 7

6 3.6 Sieve Analysis Details of Fine 7

Aggregate
7 3.7 Proportioning of RPC mixes 9

8 4.1 Compressive strength of RPC 14

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