Key Engineering Materials Submitted: 2019-12-10

ISSN: 1662-9795, Vol. 857, pp 39-47 Revised: 2020-01-03

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.857.39 Accepted: 2020-01-07
© 2020 Trans Tech Publications Ltd, Switzerland Online: 2020-08-07

Compressive Strength Performance of Reactive Powder Concrete Using

Different Types of Materials as a Partial Replacement of Fine Aggregate
Shatha D. Mohammed1,a*, Hadeel K. Awad1,b, Rawaa K. Aboud1,c
1
Department of Civil, College of Engineering, University of Baghdad, Iraq.
a
Shatha.Dh@coeng.uobaghdad.edu.iq, bHadeel.Kalid@coeng.uobaghdad.edu.iq
and cRawaa.Khalid@coeng.uobaghdad.edu.iq

Keywords: Reactive Powder Concrete, Porcelain aggregate, Glass Waste, Granular Activated
Carbon, Partial replacement and Compressive Strength.

Abstract. Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) can be incorporated as a one of the most important and
progressive concrete technology. It is a special type of ultra-high strength concrete (UHSC) that
excludes the coarse aggregate from its constitutive materials. In this research, an experimental study
has carried out to investigate the effect of using three types of materials (porcelain aggregate) and
others sustainable materials (glass waste and granular activated carbon) as a partial replacement of
fine aggregate. Four percentages were considered (0, 10, 15, and 20) % to attain enhanced
understanding for the influence of these materials upon the compressive strength of RPC. Four curing
ages were included in this study, these are; (7, 28, 60 and 90) days. The outcomes of the experimental
work improved that using porcelain aggregate as a partial replacement has an advanced effect on the
compressive strength for all the adopted percentages and for all the studied curing ages. The
maximum modification that’s obtained in case of porcelain aggregate was 24.14% at age (90) days
for (20%) replacement. Using glass waste causes an increase in the overall values of the compressive
strength for all the adopted replacements with less efficient than porcelain to reached to 20.69% at
age (90) days for 20% replacement. Regarding the granular activated carbon, only (10%) replacement
produced a positive influence on the compressive strength to reached (13.16%) while the others
caused a dropping in the compressive strength reached to (29.13%) for (20%) replacement.

Introduction
Nowadays, interest in Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) has impressively increased due to its
high mechanical and durability characteristics, its compressive strength reached to 800 MPa with
flexural strength up to 50 MPa. Basically, RPC comprises of fine materials including cement, silica
fume, and sand and/or quartz powder [1]. This, mainly, produced a very dense and low porosity
material compared with other types of traditional concrete. Therefore; it can be considered as a good
and economic choice for isolation and containment of nuclear waves [2, 3]. Several studies were
published regarding the effect of partial replacements of different materials instead of cement or sand
[4, 5 and 6]. Aboud, detected the influence of using glass waste as a partial replacement of river sand
upon some mechanical properties of reactive powder concrete (compressive strength, flexural
strength and absorption). Four partial percentages were considered (0, 25, 50, and 100) % and two
method of curing were adopted (water and kerosene). The optimum increase was achieved in a case
of (25%) partial replacement, the increasing of the compressive strength reached to (4.35 and 2.6) %
while it reached to (4 and 2.2) % regarding the flexural strength for both water and kerosene curing
respectively. It was also indicated that water is more efficient curing material than kerosene [7].
Renisha, Asvithan and Sakthieswaran, presented an experimental comparative investigation
concerning the impact of micro and nano filler on the compressive strength and ultrasonic-pulse
velocity of reactive powder concrete. Quartz sand, high alumina cement and a special type of super
plasticizer characterized by polycarbxylate had used to produce RPC. Both high alumina cement and
quartz sand were partially replaced by (alccofine) and (zircon sand and sillimanite) respectively. The
tested specimens were cured by water and treated by heat at temperatures (200, 400, 600 and 800)
o
C. The outcomes improved that the added micro and nano filler enhanced the performance of RPC
up to 600oC. Ghayoor and Khan, studied the effect of cement partial replacement upon normal

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40 Geotechnical Engineering Development

concrete strength (compressive, tensile and flexural). Both glass powder and silica fume had adopted
with different percentage of replacements (0, 10, 20, 30 and 40) %, each percentage included (75%)
glass powder and (25%) silica fume. It was approved that a percentage of (30%) replacement fulfilled
the maximum percentage increase to be (8.64, 15 and 7.08) % for compressive, tensile and flexural
strength respectively at age (28) days. The outcomes also indicated that increasing the replacement
above (30%) caused a reduction in concrete strength [8].

Material
An ordinary Portland cement which conforms the Iraqi specification No.5/1984 [10] was used.
The physical properties and chemical composition are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Cement physical properties and chemical composition.
Test Specification Limits
Property
results (I.Q.S) No.5 [10]
Initial (mints) 107 Min. 45
Setting time
Final (hrs.) 4.67 Max. 10
Physical tests
Compressive strength 3 days 15.47 Min. 15
(MPa) at age: 7 days 22.71 Min. 23
CaO (%) 61.98
SiO2 (%) 19.18
Al2O3 (%) 5.32
Fe2O3 (%) 4.22
Chemical tests SO3 (%) 2.18 ≤ 2.8 if C3A ≥ 5%
MgO (%) 0.24 Max. 5
L.O.I. (%) 3.14 Max. 4
I.R. (%) 0.85 Max.1.5
L.S.F (%) 0.96 0.66-1.02
C3S (%) 58.51
Bogue′s
C2S (%) 10.59
equations
C3A (%) 6.97
C4AF (%) 12.82
Finensess m2/kg 304 Min. 230

The grain size distribution of the fine aggregate used in this investigation was ranging from
(600 μm) to (150 μm) .The results of sulfate content conform to the Iraqi specification No.45/1984
[11] as shown in Table 2.
Table 2. Fine aggregate chemical and physical properties.
Properties Test results Limit IQS No.45/1984 [11]
Apparent specific gravity 2.67
Saturated surface dry specific gravity 2.64
Absorption, % 0.96
Sulfate content (SO3), % 0.19 ≤ 0.5
Soluble salts, % 0.08 ≤0.1
Youn’s Modulus, MPa [12]
Loss Medium Dense
10-3 30-50 50-80
 Key Engineering Materials Vol. 857 41

The adopted Silica fume is of high reactive pozzolan. Table 3 shows the physical properties and
chemical composition of silica fume which conform the requirements of ASTM C1240-03 [13]. The
pozzolanic strength activity index with Portland cement was (95%).
Table 3. Physical properties and chemical composition of silica fume.
Oxide composition Oxide content % ASTM C1240-03 [13]
SiO2 93.64 Min. 85 %
Al2O3 0.18
Fe2O3 0.03
MgO 0.05
CaO 0.65
SO3 0.43
K2O 0.07
L.O.I 3.7 Max. 6 %
Physical properties
Fineness 14950 m²/kg
Specific gravity 2.13
Physical form Powder

Sika ViscoCrete -5930 was used as a chemical admixture in this study. Table 4 shows the
properties of the superplasticizer used which meets the requirements of ASTM C494-05 [14]. Types
G and F.
Table 4. The properties of superplasticizer (Sika ViscoCrete-5930).

Form Viscous liquid

Basis Aqueous solution of modified polycarboxlate
Appearance Turbid liquid
Relative density 1.08 g/1t. ±0.005
Glass waste, local naturally porcelain aggregate and granular activated carbon were used in this
study. A suitable process of grading and sieving had been considered to perform graded materials
with the same fine aggregate grading; they were used as a partial replacement by weight of fine
aggregate as (10, 15, and 20) %. Table 5 clarifies the chemical analysis of glass waste and Table 6
shows the chemical analysis of porcelain stone. Tap water had used for both mixing and curing of
reactive powder concrete samples.
Table 5. Chemical and physical properties of glass waste.
Oxide content (%)
SiO2 72.8 CaO 10.2
Oxide composition
Al2O3 6.27 MgO 4.22
Fe2O3 1.71 SO3 0.36
L.O.I 3.2
Youn’s Modulus, GPa [15] 50-90
42 Geotechnical Engineering Development

Table 6. Chemical analysis of porcelain stone.

Oxide composition Oxide content (%) Oxide composition Oxide content (%)
SiO2 74.0313 K2O 0.1707
CaO 5.3296 Na2O 0.0662
MgO 3.3556 Cr2O3 0.0245
Al2O3 3.4539 SO3 0.0090
P2O5 1.1600 MnO 0.0043
Fe2O3 0.9794 L.O.I 11.2000
TiO2 0.1773 - -

Experimental Work
Reactive Powder Concrete in this study consists of main materials such as ordinary Portland
cement, silica fume, superplasticizer, fine aggregate and materials that used as a partial replacement
of fine aggregate with different percentage of replacement like porcelain, glass waste and granular
activated carbon. The mixes details are prepared in Table 7.
Table 7. Mix proportions of the reactive powder concrete.
Activated
Fine Silica Glass Porcelain
Concrete Cement Water carbon
aggregate fume w/b replacement replacement
mix kg/m³* kg/m³* replacement
kg/ m³* kg/ m³* ratio (%) ratio (%)
ratio (%)

G-10% 1030 800 250 0.2 210 10 - -

G-15% 1030 800 250 0.2 210 15 - -
G-20% 1030 800 250 0.2 210 20 - -
P-10% 1030 800 250 0.2 210 - 10 -
P-15% 1030 800 250 0.2 210 - 15 -
P-20% 1030 800 250 0.2 210 - 20 -
C-10% 1030 800 250 0.2 210 - - 10
C-15% 1030 800 250 0.2 210 - - 15
C-20% 1030 800 250 0.2 210 - - 20
* kg per m³ of concrete volume.
Cubic molds of (100x100x100) mm were used for casting the reactive powder concrete mixes. The
compressive strength test was conducted according to the British Standard BS1881: part 116 (1983)
[16] where the average of three cubes had used for each mix at age of (7, 28, 60, and 90) days.

Results and Discussions

In this study, three types of materials (porcelain, glass waste and granular activated carbone) were
considered to investigate the influence of partial replacement for fine aggregate upon the compressive
strength of RPC, all the attained results are demonstrated in Table 8. Regarding the first studied
material (porcelain), it is clear that for all the adopted replacements; the compressive strength trend
to have the same behavior. That is to say; adding (porcelain) as a partial replacement of fine aggregate
causes different percentages of increasing in the compressive strength for all studied curing ages (7,
28, 60, and 90) days as compared to the reference mix of (0%) partial replacement, Fig. 1. It can be
also concluded that the advantage of the compressive strength is directly proportioned with the curing
age and it is more significant at (90) days to reach 134.07 MPa, for 20% replacement as shown in
Table 8.
 Key Engineering Materials Vol. 857 43

140
130

Compresive Strength, MPa

120
110
100
90 P-10%
80 P-15%
70 P-20%
60 Ref
50
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Curing Age, day

Figure 1. Progress of compressive strength using porcelain as a partial replacement.

Table 8. Compressive strength for all the adopted mixes.

Curing Compressive Strength MPa

Age Glass waste Porcelain Activated Carbone
(days) Reference 10% 15% 20% 10% 15% 20% 10% 15% 20%
7 71.00 71.71 73.16 74.98 78.04 80.54 83.04 80.66 71.82 57.60
28 95.00 96.90 98.70 99.81 98.82 102.77 104.50 103.18 89.47 67.32
60 104.00 107.12 111.30 114.39 111.91 117.73 120.20 107.54 100.64 78.01
90 108.00 115.56 121.66 130.34 117.31 125.38 134.07 114.94 108.15 89.01

Glass waste exhibits the same influence upon the behavior of the compressive strength that caused
by (porcelain) as shown in Fig. 2. The status differs in case of adding (activated carbon). There was
a positive effect only for (10) % partial replacement by 13.60% at age of 7 days as shown in Fig. 3,
while the other adopted percentages 15 and 20% produced a reduction in the compressive strength
that reached to (-5.82,-29.13) % at age of (28) days as illustrated in Table 9. To investigate the
significant effect of the considered materials (porcelain, glass waste and activated carbon), the
behavior of the compressive strength for each percentage of RPC was studied.
140
130 G-10%
Compresive Strength, MPa

120 G-15%
110 G-20%
100 Ref
90
80
70
60
50
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Curing Age, day

Figure 2. Progress of compressive strength using glass waste as a partial replacement.

44 Geotechnical Engineering Development

140
130 C-10%

Compresive Strength, MPa

C-15%
120
C-20%
110
Ref
100
90
80
70
60
50
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Curing Age, day

Figure 3. Progress of compressive strength using activated carbon as a partial replacement.

Table 9. Variation of the compressive strength for all the adopted mixes.

Curing Variation of the Compressive Strength (%)

Age Glass waste Porcelain Activated Carbone
(days) 10% 15% 20% 10% 15% 20% 10% 15% 20%
7 1.00 3.04 5.60 9.92 13.44 16.96 13.60 1.16 -18.87
28 2.00 3.90 5.06 4.03 8.18 10.00 8.61 -5.82 -29.13
60 3.00 7.02 9.99 7.61 13.20 15.58 3.40 -3.23 -24.99
90 7.00 12.64 20.69 8.62 16.09 24.14 6.43 0.14 -17.58

For 10% replacement, the optimum behavior characterizes by activated carbon at curing ages (7
and 28) days. It was also detected that all the added materials have a converged effect on the
compressive strength at later curing ages 60 and 90 days with more advantage for porcelain as shown
in Fig. 4. The increase in the compressive strength reached to (8.26, 7.0 and 6.43) % for porcelain,
glass waste, and granular activated carbon respectively as revealed in Table 9. Regarding (15) %
replacement, there was a negative influence for granular activated carbon at all the studied curing
ages except for (90) days at which the advantage of the compressive strength at this age was (0.14%).
Both (porcelain and glass waste) showed a positive effect on the compressive strength, notice that
(porcelain) was more significant than (glass waste) at age of (90) days. There was a close behavior
for (porcelain and glass waste) so that the increasing percentages in the compressive strength reached
to (16.09 and 12.64) % respectively as shown in Fig. 5 and Table 9.
140
C-10%
130
Compresive Strength MPa

G-10%
120
P-10%
110 Ref
100
90
80
70
60
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Curing Age, day

Figure 4. The effect of (10%) replacement on the compressive strength.

 Key Engineering Materials Vol. 857 45

130
120

Compresive Strength, MPa

110
100
90
80 C-15%
70 G-15%
P-15%
60
Ref
50
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Curing Age, day

Figure 5. The effect of (15%) replacement on the compressive strength.

Concerning the ratio of 20% replacement, it was clear that the overall compressive strength for all
the considered ages reduced in case of adding granular activated carbon. The reduction percentage in
the compressive strength reached to 29.13% at 28 days as illustrated in Table 9 and Fig. 6, while the
positive effect for both (porcelain and glass waste) was applicable for all ages to reach 24.14 and
20.69% at 90 days. The positive influence of adding porcelain was caused by the internal curing that’s
provided by this material especially in later ages. Even in case of 20%, there was no reduction in the
compressive strength since the effect of the internal curing was greater than the reduction caused by
the replacement of fine aggregate by this material.
Essentially, modification of the compressive strength in case of using (porcelain and activated
carbon) as a partial replacement of fine aggregate can be characterized by the influence of increasing
the internal curing rate. This usually belongs to the porous texture of (porcelain and activated carbon).
The outcomes of the experimental work improve that the influence of the internal curing, in case of
granular activated carbon, vanished when the replacement percentage is greater than (10%). This can
be interpreted by the comparison between the internal curing modification and the reduction in the
strength of RPC that’s generated due to the replacement of fine aggregate by granular activated
carbon. It is well known that the strength of carbon material (4.1-27.6) MPa [17] is lower than that of
sand material (50-80) MPa [12]. Using glass waste clearly produced an enhancement in the
compressive strength. This belongs to the high strength characteristic of the glass material
(50-90) GPa [15] as compared to sand.
140
130
Compresive Strength, MPa

120
110
100
90
80 C-20%
G-20%
70
P-20%
60
Ref
50
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Curing Age, day

Figure 6. The effect of (20%) replacement on the compressive strength.

46 Geotechnical Engineering Development

Conclusions
• Adding (porcelain and glass waste) as a partial replacement of fine aggregate by (10, 15, and 20)
% causes a positive effect on the compressive strength of RPC for all the considered curing ages
(7, 28, 60, and 90) days.
• Concerning activated carbon, using 10% partial replacement of fine aggregate modifies the
compressive strength of RPC while (15 and 20) % replacement reduce the compressive strength.
• Porcelain presents the optimum behavior for the compressive strength of RPC concerning all the
studied curing ages and replacement percentages.
• Approached behavior for the modified compressive strength was obtained for all the adopted
materials concerning the replacement percentage (10) % at age of 90 days.

Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge the sustenance provided by the Departments of Civil Engineering /
College of Engineering / University of Baghdad to complete the experimental part of this research.

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 Key Engineering Materials Vol. 857 47

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