What is a Reactive Powder Concrete?

Reactive powder concrete (RPC) is the ultra-high strength concrete prepared by

replacing the ordinary aggregate of normal concrete with quartz powder, silica
fume, steel fibers etc. RPC not only has high strength but also has high ductility.
Its compressive strength ranges from 200 Mpa to 800 Mpa.

Composition of Reactive Powder

Concrete
Reactive powder concrete contains Very fine powders like cement, fine sand,
quartz powder of size less than 300 micron, silica fume, 1 cm length steel fibers
of size 180 microns and super plasticizer. Typical Composition of ingredients in
Reactive powder concrete of 200 Mpa and 800 Mpa are tabulated below.

Table 1: Typical Composition of RPC of 200 Mpa

Ingredient Quantity (kg/m3)

OPC ( Type V) 955

Fine Sand (150 – 400 micron) 1051

Silica Fume 229

Precipitated Silica 10

Super Plasticizer 13

Steel Fibers 191

Water 153
 Fig 1: Side Walk System of above Shown Bridge is Constructed using RPC

Table 2: Typical Composition of RPC of 800 Mpa

Ingredient Quantity (kg/m3)

OPC ( Type V) 1000

Fine Sand (150 – 400 micron) 500

Ground Quartz powder (4 microns) 390

Silica Fume 230

Super Plasticizer 18

Steel Fibers 630

Water 180

Functions of Ingredients of Reactive

Powder Concrete
Functions of each of the ingredients and their selection parameters are discusses
below. The ingredients of reactive powder concrete are

1. Cement

2. Sand

3. Quartz Powder

4. Silica Fume
5. Steel Fibers

6. Super Plasticizers

1. Cement
o Ordinary Portland cement of medium fineness is suitable for making RPC. The Cement
particle size should be 1 micron to 100 microns.

o The function of cement is to act as binding material and also to generate primary
hydrants of concrete.

o Optimum percentage of principle minerals or Bogues Compounds required to make RPC

are tabulated below:
Table 3: Optimum Percentage of Principle Minerals of Cement
Tricalcium Silicate (C3S) 60%

Dicalcium Silicate (C2S) 22%

Tricalcium Aluminate (C3A) 3.8%

Tetra-calcium Alumino Ferrite (C4AF) 7.4%

2. Sand
o Natural river bed or crushed sand of particle size 150 to 600 micron is recommended.

o It should be of good hardness and readily available at low cost.

o In reactive powder concrete, sand particles are highest sized particle hence, their
function is to give strength to the concrete mix.
 Fig 2: River Bed Sand

3. Quartz powder
o Generally quartz powder is available in crystalline form. It is selected based on its
fineness.

o The particle size should be 5 microns to 25 microns.

o The main function of quartz is to give maximum resistance to the concrete against heat.

Fig 3: Quartz Powder

4. Silica Fume
o Silica fume is generally obtained from ferrosilicon industries. It should be selected in
such a way that it should contain less quantity of impurities in it.

o The particle size of silica fume is about 0.1 micron to 1 micron.

o Its function is to fill the small voids and also to enhance flow properties of concrete.

o It also helps to generate secondary hydrates in the concrete.

Fig 4: Silica Fume

5. Steel Fibers
o Steel fibers of length 13 to 25 mm and 0.15 to 0.2 mm diameter are selected to prepare
reactive powder concrete.

o It improves ductility of the concrete.

Fig 5: Steel Fibers

6. Super Plasticizer
o Polyacrylate is used as super plasticizer in RPC.
o The main function of polyacrylate is to decrease the water cement ratio and also to
improve the workability of concrete.

Advantages of Reactive Powder Concrete

Following are the advantages of Reactive powder concrete compared to other
types of concretes.

o Due to its High ductility property it always compete with steel.

o Fine ingredients makes the concrete void proof and no leakage of gas or liquid occurs.

o There is a reduction of dead load of structure due to higher shear capacity along with
superior strength.

o RPC members have great resistance against seismic forces.

Fig 6: Light Rail Transit Station Built using Reactive Powder Concrete

Limitations of Reactive Powder Concrete

Reactive powder concrete also have some limitations which are as follows:

o Aggregate replacing materials used in RPC are slightly expensive which increases the
project cost.

o Optimization of principle minerals in concrete also increase the cost of concrete.

o Long term properties of reactive powder concrete are not known since it is still in
developing stage.

o There is no official code provided for Reactive powder concrete mix design.