Composition of Reactive Powder Concrete - Research Proposal Example

Running Head: SHORT-TERM AND TIME-DEPENDENT FLEXURAL BEHAVIOUR OF STEEL-FIBRE REINFORCED REACTIVE POWDER CONCRETE SHORT-TERM AND TIME-DEPENDENT FLEXURAL BEHAVIOUR OF STEEL-FIBRE REINFORCED REACTIVE POWDER CONCRETE [Name of Writer] [Name of Institution] SHORT-TERM AND TIME-DEPENDENT FLEXURAL BEHAVIOUR OF STEEL-FIBRE REINFORCED REACTIVE POWDER CONCRETE Introduction Concrete is considered to be one of the most popular materials, which is used in the construction domain. It was introduced by the Romans. They are responsible for using it in their structures. In recent times, concrete has become a complex material, which has become difficult to understand. Throughout the years, it has been experimented in order to improve its strength. Materials such as flyash, marble dust and several cementitious materials have been experimented with concrete in order to improve its strength and other properties. High strength concrete is know to show properties such as decreased permeability, low creep, shrinkage, etc. it should be noted that high strength concrete is also very brittle, which is a undesirable property(Rossi, 50, 2001). For this purpose, concrete has been experimented with several materials in order to remove the brittleness. One such material is the fiber material, which is added to concrete in order to improve its properties. Fiber reinforced concrete was introduced in order to reduce the brittleness of concrete. With its enhanced and improved properties, extensive research and studies have been conducted on it. In recent times, fiber reinforced Reactive Powder Concrete has been subjected to research and development. Reactive Power Concrete As compared to conventional concrete, Reactive Power Concrete is considered to be a new construction material. It exhibits brilliant and outstanding properties such as high strength, toughness, durability, etc. because of these properties, RPC is considered to be an ideal construction material for construction because of its high compressive strength and durability to withstand high tensile forces (Rossi, 51, 2001). RPC and steel bars are used to make reinforced RPC, which has significant conceptual and practical importance. Countries such as China, Koreas, Russia, France, etc have experimented with RPC in order to study and investigate its properties. It was first introduced in the early nineties (Richard, Cheyrezy, 1509, 1995). Purpose of the Study The purpose of the study is as follows: To design and develop the RPC, from materials which are available locally. To study the properties of the RPC mix design: the main aim is to study the short and long term flexural behavior of steel fiber reinforced RPC. To study the flexural behavior. To study the behavior and properties of RPC beams and slabs in order to understand time-dependent flexural behavior Scope of the Study The scope of the study is as follows: To study the material properties of Steel fiber reinforced RPC To investigate and analyze the flexural behavior of RPC beams. The study will employ the used of steel fiber reinforced RPC, which will be developed from the materials which are available locally. The material will be subjected to wide ranging tests in order to understand and evaluate its material properties. Additionally, time dependent properties will be analyzed. Layout of the Thesis The layout of thesis is as follows: Chapter two will concentrate on the analysis of existing literature on RPC. Chapter three will concentrate on research methodology Chapter four will comprise of results Chapter five will cover the analysis of the data Chapter six will comprise of conclusion and future research Literature Review Reactive Powder Concrete is considered to high strength material, which has cementing properties. It is made from fine powders and has silica fume content. At the same time, it has a low water cement ratio as compared to normal concrete. It is considered to high strength concrete because it has high compressive strength and high flexural strength which ranges from twenty to fifty MPa (Richard, Cheyrezy, 1510, 1995). When steel fibers are added to it, this concrete shows ductility as compared to traditional concrete. It is a durable material, which has low porosity. At the same time, it has a smooth and high quality finish. It was first introduced when Scientific Division of Bouyges, published a report on it in France. Since its inception, it was subjected to extensive research and development. On basis of research, it was divided and categorized into two classes: RPC 200 and RPC 800, which represents its compressive strength respectively. In research, the fibers used were composed of steel, which were about twelve millimeter in length and had a diameter of zero point eighteen millimeters (Reda, Shrive, Gillott, 325, 1999). Properties of RPC Literature suggests that conventional concrete used in the material, which is heterogeneous and demonstrates different properties. The heterogeneity is responsible for creating several problems in concrete(Reda, Shrive, Gillott, 328, 1999). As compared to the traditional concrete, RPC has tackled the problems, which are caused by heterogeneity. Research demonstrates that it has successfully reduced the use of coarse aggregate, it has significantly enhanced mechanical properties and the aggregate paste ration has been reduced significantly. Research also suggests that concrete there is a direct relationship between density and compressive strength. Professional literature suggests that increase in density will increase the compressive strength. As compared to traditional concrete, RPC has low water so that there is no extra water(Feylessoufi, 1574, 2001) . The ratio between water and binder is less and the entire water is used in the hydration process (Bonneau et.al, 1864, 2001). In order to improve the ductility and toughness against fracture for concrete, steel fibers RPC are considered to be ideal. As material, it offers several advantages as compared to traditional concrete. It offers modified and enhanced mechanical properties. The advantages of RPC are as follows: It offers better and enhanced compressive and tensile strength(Matte, 5, 1999) With high strengths, it becomes easy to erect slender structures. By erecting such structures, dead loads are significantly reduced. This property can be beneficial when constructing sky scrapers It is granular and had low porosity. This makes it strong against liquids and gases. Research suggests that RPC is best alternative for containment purposes. For instance, storing of nuclear waste, etc. RPC is resistant towards abrasion. This indicates that it has high life as compared to traditional concrete. Research suggests that RPC has been used in several structures. It has been used specifically in the construction of bridges. The first RPC structure was built in Canada and it was a pedestrian bridge(Matte, 7, 1999). Since then, several countries have employed RPC in the construction of RPC pedestrian bridges. Countries such as France, South Korea, Japan, etc have employed the use of RPC in these bridges. Because of its superior and enhanced properties as compared to traditional concrete, RPC has been considered to be used in wide ranging fields. It has been employed in structural and non structural domains. Its existing applications are as follows: It is used in architecture for sound proofing It has been employed in making beams It has been used in seal well anchors in Portugal Future applications as envision by researchers as follows: To be used in making of high pressure pipes in order to transport liquid and gas. To store nuclear waste To be used in earthquake engineering To be used in tunnels To be used in industrial construction To be used in open closures. Research Methodology The main aim of this research is to study and investigate the material properties of steel fiber reinforced concrete powder, which will be created from the materials which are available commercially. On basis of the materials available, RPC mix design will be developed. Total of seven large scale batches will be prepares, which would also contain several small batches. From thee batches, sixteen beam samples and other material specimens will be introduced. In order to analyze the material properties, compressive strength, flexural strength and modulus of elasticity will be analyzed. For this purpose, the properties will be studied for a period of three hundred and sixty five days. Time dependent properties will also be studied. Later on these properties will be compared to the properties of the traditional concrete. The main of this study is to know the short term and time dependent properties of plain steel reinforced plain beams and pre-stressed beams. Three beams specimen will be made to study the properties. The beam series 1 and 2 will be used to determine the Bibliography: Rossi, P.: Ultra-High-Performance – A French perspective on approachesused to produce high-strength, ductile fiber reinforced concrete. In: ConcreteInternational, pp. 46-52, 12. 2001. Richard, P.; Cheyrezy, M.: Composition of reactive powder concrete. In: Cement and Concrete Research 25, No. 7, S. 1501-1511, 1995. M.M. Reda, N.G. Shrive, J.E. Gillott, Microstructural investigation of innovative UHPC, Cem. Concr. Res. 29 (1999) 323– 329. . Bonneau, C. Vernet, M. Moranville, P.C. Aitcin, Characterization of the granular packing and percolation threshold of reactive powder concrete, Cem. Concr. Res. 30 (2000) 1861– 1867. A. Feylessoufi, Early ages shrinkage mechanisms of ultra-high-performance cement-based materials, Cem. Concr. Res. 31 (2001) 1573– 1579. Matte, M. Moranville, Durability of reactive powder composites:influence of silica fume on the leaching properties of very low water/binder pastes, Cem. Concr. Compos. 21 (1999) 1 –9. Read More