Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Materials Today: Proceedings

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An exploration on the durability properties of reactive powder concrete

D. Ambika ⇑, V. Nandhini, V. Santha Rubini, G. Poovizhi, S. Dhinu Priya
Kongu Engineering College, Perundurai, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Newly the High Strength Concrete (HSC) and High-Performance Concrete (HPC) have been widely used in
Received 7 November 2019 building projects. HSC and HPC is not just a simple mixture of cement, water and aggregates. HSC and
Received in revised form 8 February 2020 HPC lead to achieving the maximum compressive strength of 120 to 150 MPa. At such level of intensity
Accepted 11 February 2020
the coarse aggregate becomes the weakest link in concrete. The strength and durability of concrete was
Available online xxxx
improved by way of removing the coarse aggregate and employing the mineral admixtures and steel
fibers is the philosophy to develop Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC). In this paper, the development of
Keywords:
incorporated GGBS based Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) with several mineral admixtures and micro
Fibre reinforced concrete
Reactive powder concrete
steel fiber was studied and discussed. Four different mineral admixtures were added in RPC, such as
Admixtures fly ash, ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), Quartz powder and silica fumes; also the micro steel
Mechanical properties fibers were used. The specimens were cast for finding mechanical and durability of RPC was studied and
Durability discussed.
Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Confer-
ence on Advances in Materials Research – 2019.

1. Introduction aggregates (around 150–500 lm), undensified silica fume (around

Reactive powder concrete (RPC) is a new production concrete
and it was developed through microstructure improvement tech-
niques for cementitious materials. The original concepts of Reactive
powder concrete (RPC) was developed in the year of 1990s, by
P.Richards and M.Cheyrezy at Bouygues laboratory in France. Reac-
tive powder concrete is an ultrahigh performance, ultra high
strength and high ductility composite material with advanced
mechanical and durability properties. RPC seems to be a promising
material for special pre-stressed and precast concrete members
[8–12]. It is possible to reduce or eliminate passive reinforcement
using with steel fibers and due to ultra-high mechanical perfor-
mance of RPC, the thickness of concrete elements can be reduced,
which results in materials and cost savings [3].
2. Experimental program
2.1. Materials and mix
The RPC deliberated here is primed by the subsequent ingredi-
ents OPC 53, crushed quartz powder (around 5–20 mm), fine
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ambikaceg@gmail.com (D. Ambika).
0.1–0.2 mm), Acrylic graft–copolymer super plasticizer, and
diminutive steel fibers (around 0.16 mm dia & 13 mm length)
(Fig. 1). The physical properties of ingredients used for concocting
the reactive powder concrete are listed in Table 1 [17–20].
3. Methods
3.1. Materials used and concrete mixes
The cement used was ordinary Portland cement of grade 53. The
coarse aggregate was a crushed stone with two sizes viz. 20 mm
and 10–25 mm. These two aggregates were mixed with a 1:1 ratio.
The sand used was natural sand with fineness modulus of 2.58; the
percentage of the sand was 32% of the total aggregate weight. The
water-soluble polymeric glycol (i.e., polyethylene-glycol) was the
self-curing agent used in the study [4–6]. The self-curing agent
dosage was kept constant for all the self-curing concrete mixes.
By weight of the cement, the dosage was 0.02% (Fig. 2).
Two concrete mixes were cast for each cement content and w/c
ratio and one which includes the self-curing agent and the other is
a conventional mix. A total of eight combinations were used in this
investigation. For all the traditional concrete mixes, the initial
slump was kept constant (about 90–e120 mm) using the variable
dosage of high-range water reducer-retarding admixture (Type

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.170
2214-7853/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Advances in Materials Research – 2019.

Please cite this article as: D. Ambika, V. Nandhini, V. Santha Rubini et al., An exploration on the durability properties of reactive powder concrete, Materials
Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.170
2 D. Ambika et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 1. Ingredients used.

Table 1
Tests on materials.

S. No Ingredients Tests Results

1. Cement Compressive strength test
 For three days 27 N/mm2
 For seven days 35 N/mm2
 For twenty eight days 43 N/mm2

Fineness test 5%
Initial setting time 30mins
Final setting time 600mins
Standard Consistency 29%
Specific gravity 3.15
2. Fine aggregate Sieve Analysis Zone III
Size Passing through 4.75 mm
Water Absorption 1%
Fineness Modulus 3.225
Bulking of sand
- Max% of bulking 22.8%4%
- Corresponding water content
Specific gravity 2.54
3. Coarse aggregate Sieve analysis Single sized aggregate
Size 20 mm
Fineness modulus 7.3
Water absorption 0.5%
Specific gravity 2.6
4. Polyethylene Glycol Appearance Clear liquid
Odour Mild odour
Solubility Soluble in water
Density range 1.1 to 1.2
Melting Point
Vapor pressure Low
Flash point 182–287 °C

G). Two curing regimes for evaluating water transport were used 4.2. Mass loss of specimen results
for conventional concrete mixes without a self-curing agent, con-
tinuously moist-curing underwater and air curing (Fig. 3) [13–16].

3.2. Mix proportions

The concrete mix was designed so as per to achieve target mean
forte at the period of twenty eight days. The mix proportions for
grade of concrete M20, M30 were shown in Table 2 [1,2].
4. Test results
4.1. Visual assessment results
There are no regular criteria for assessing the resistance of con-
crete bare to chemical acid ((Fig. 4)). For optical observation the
succeeding scale was used as per reference journal [7] (Table 3).
5. Discussions and conclusions
5.1. Discussion of results
From the graphs, it was inferred that there is no significant
changes in the mass of the specimen when immersed in acid solu-
tion. Even then the self curing method proves to be effective due to
the presence of the admixtures in concrete and therefore the reac-
tions during hydrations was found to be high when compared with
conventional curing. The sulphate attack proves to be predominant
than the other two acid solution and hence visual observation has
adequate attack in H2So4 immersion.

Please cite this article as: D. Ambika, V. Nandhini, V. Santha Rubini et al., An exploration on the durability properties of reactive powder concrete, Materials
Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.170
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Fig. 2. Visual assessment of specimen under HCl attack of M20 and M30 grade concrete for conventional and self-curing concrete.

Fig.3. Visual assessment of specimen under sulphuric acid attack of M20 and M30 grade concrete for conventional and self-curing concrete.

Please cite this article as: D. Ambika, V. Nandhini, V. Santha Rubini et al., An exploration on the durability properties of reactive powder concrete, Materials
Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.170
4 D. Ambika et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 2 Table 3
Concrete Mix Proportions for M20 and M30. Reference scale and Deterioration level.

Grade of Concrete Mix Proportion Scale Deterioration Level

M20 1:1.42:3:0.5 0 Not at all attack
M30 1:1.09:2.66:0.43 1 Very slender attack
2 Slender attack
3 Adequate attack
4 Harsh attack
5 Very harsh attack
6 Fractional disintegration
From the results given in the Table 4, it was clear that the spec-
imen subjected to immersion in acids underwent deterioration.
But out of these three acid solutions, H2So4 undergoes more dete-
rioration than other two acid solutions. HCl falls in second category Table 4
of attack and very slighter attack was found in sulphate solution. Compiled Results Showing Scale and Deterioration Level For Specimen with Acids.
From Figs. 5 to 7, it is clear that specimens underwent mass loss Attack Scale Deterioration Level
in Kg when it is dipped inside the acid solutions.
HCl 1 Very Slender Attack
H2SO4 3 Adequate Attack
5.2. Conclusions Na2SO4 0 Not at all Attack

The subsequent points was inferred from the results obtained

for this study:
CRediT authorship contribution statement
- Self-cured concrete found to have less water absorption and
mass loss standards compared to fully cured concrete. D. Ambika: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision. V.
- Self-cured concrete found to be less porous compared to the Nandhini: Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. V.
other two types of curing and have only less deterioration.

Fig. 4. Visual assessment of specimen under sulphate attack of M20 and M30 grade concrete for conventional and self-curing concrete.

Please cite this article as: D. Ambika, V. Nandhini, V. Santha Rubini et al., An exploration on the durability properties of reactive powder concrete, Materials
Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.170
 D. Ambika et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx 5

Fig.5. Mass loss of specimen in HCl solution for M20 and M30 grade of concrete.

Fig.6. Mass loss of specimen in sulphuric acid solution for M20 and M30 grade of concrete.

Fig. 7. Mass loss of specimen in sulphate solution for M20 and M30 grade of concrete.

Santha Rubini: Investigation. G. Poovizhi: Visualization. S. Dhinu References

Priya: . : Writing - review & editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
Greatly acknowledging the staff and faculty members of civil
engineering department, kongu engineering college, Perundurai.
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