The Steam Curing Effect on Reactive Powder Concrete Strengths

Abstract

Strong concrete pavement while being environmentally friendly by utilizing waste material is indispensable for road construction. The Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) with the glass powder may be an alternative material for this idea. To increase the strength of RPC, it can be used the method of steam curing. So far the ideal implementation of steam curing is conducted in the laboratory. When the steam curing is done in the field, the temperature consistency factor should be of concern. This study compared the steam curing method in laboratory (C1) and the method of the in-situ steam curing (C3) to observe the effect of steam curing on the RPC strengths. There is also a normal curing method by soaking in water (C2) and wet curing in the field (C4) as a comparison. Tests performed on compressive strength, flexural and splitting tensile strength. The results show the C1 steam curing method remains better than the C3 in-situ steam curing method. The C3 in-situ steam curing method shows reasonable results for compressive, flexural, and splitting tensile strengths. The difference between C3 to C1 method for the compressive, flexural, and splitting tensile strengths of the RPC is 10.6%, 19.0%, and 13.3%, respectively. The result of C3 strengths is still better than C4 although not so significant. For the further study, the temperature consistency factor needs to be investigated.