Ibrahim, A G; Garba, M M; Okoli, O G; Zubairu, I K; Dahiru, D and Usman, J (2020) Properties of reactive powder concrete produced with unrefined metakaolin and gear inner wire. African Journal of Built Environment Research, 4(1), pp. 81-95. ISSN 2414-0236
Abstract
With the soaring need to use innovative and sustainable materials in the construction industry, a new concrete known as Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) is currently a material of significant interest globally. The concrete constitutes cement, silica fume (SF), fine sand, quartz sand and fibre as its ingredients. However, the importation of SF and fibre is making RPC production relatively expensive in Nigeria due to their non-availability. This paper examines the effects of unrefined Metakaolin (MK) as substitute to silica fume and Gear Inner Wire (GIW) as fibre on the properties of RPC. RPC specimens produced with up to 30% MK by weight of cement, and a constant GIW content of 0.25% by weight of concrete were subjected to compressive strength, tensile strength and flexural strength tests. Similarly, RPC produced with 20% silica fume as reference was tested. Unrefined MK and GIW have been found to be suitable in the production of RPC. Unrefined MK performs in similar way or slightly better than SF in terms of compressive, tensile and flexural strengths. The GIW positively affect the tensile and flexural strengths of the RPC but negatively affect the compressive strength. The results show that 20% unrefined MK is the optimum content for producing RPC with the compressive, tensile and flexural strengths values of 64.5N/mm², 4.7 N/mm² and 18.7 N/mm² respectively as confirmed by the XRD and SEM results. The use of the unrefined MK and GIW can lead to production of cheaper and sustainable RPC by cutting down importation cost of SF and fibre materials.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | concrete; gear inner wire; reactive powder concrete; un-refined metakaolin |
| Index terms: | construction industry, sand, sustainable material, tensile strength, metakaolin, silica fume, compressive strength, flexural strength, Nigeria |
| Subjects: | industry analysis, structural engineering, material analysis and testing, material properties and characteristics, Geography, building materials, sustainable materials |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Geographical Context, Engineering Principles, Construction Materials |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
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