A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF REACTIVE POWDER CONCRETE AS A NEW REPAIR MATERIAL

ABSTRACT Concrete is a construction material composed of cement and cementitious materials such as
fly ash and slag cement, aggregate. Intensive research efforts have been devoted to the improvement

of compressive strength and ductility of concrete. Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) is an ultra high strength and high ductility composite concrete with advanced mechanical properties. The reactive powder mortars used here are composed of type II Portland cement, quartz sand, quartz powder, silica fume, super-plasticizer and water. Owing to constructional and design errors, durable, easy and cost effective solutions are required for the repair and rehabilitation of the structures. Compounds like epoxy mortar are employed in the retrofitting of structures which were
subjected to cracking. Most of the epoxy compounds are very expensive. This report checks the feasibility of using Reactive powder mortar (RPM), as a less expensive alternative to epoxy resins

for retrofitting of structures. The feasibility of using the proposed highly flowable RPM mix as a repair material for cracks and pores in concrete structures was evaluated by conducting a series of slant shear, rebar pull-out and tensile strength tests. The experimental results show that the slant shear strength of the highly flowable RPM was comparable to that of epoxy resin.

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