Performance of reactive powder concrete slabs with different curing conditions

In this paper, the material performance of Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) with two different curing conditions, water-curing of 25°C and heat-treatment of 90°C and 95% relative humidity was experimentally studied. An experimental investigation is carried out to study the influence of using steel fiber and heat-treatment on RPC slab specimens. All the slabs are simply supported along the four edges and loaded concentrically by a square plate of dimensions (70×70×25 mm). The test results showed adequate improvements by increasing adding steel fiber, using of heat-treatment on the compressive strength, indirect tensile strength and modulus of elasticity. It also showed a great positive effect on the flexural strength. The 28-day compressive strength varied between 163.4 and 194.6 MPa for the non-heat-treated and heat-treated specimens. Test results proved that the increase slab thickness leads to significant increase in ultimate load. The ultimate load of RPC slabs that have 20, 40 and 60 mm thickness are 17.5, 13.0 and 12.6% respectively compared to RPC slab specimens non-heat-treated when steel fibers are used at 2% by volume and the percentage increment when thickness decrement. It was found that the deflection at ultimate load, showed a significant decrease when the slab thickness was increased.   Key words: Reactive powder concrete; mechanical properties; curing conditions; steel fibers