Behavior of Reactive Powder Concrete Columns with or without Steel Ties

Abstract

In this paper, an experimental work was carried out to investigate the behavior of reactive powder concrete (RPC) columns with or without steel ties. The main objective of this work is to investigate experimentally the behavior of RPC columns, to search the effect of the experimental variables, type of concrete (RPC and NSC), percentage of micro steel fibers and spacing between steel ties. Twelve RPC columns and five NSC columns were cast and tested under concentric axial compression load up to failure and the results are reported herein. The experimental results showed that RPC column specimens failed in a controlled manner without observing spalling of concrete cover or buckling of the longitudinal reinforcement to well beyond the peak load due to the inclusion of steel fibers in RPC. Also, the space and amount of steel ties affect the load carrying capacity of columns by increasing the load carrying capacity with decreasing spacing of lateral ties.

Keywords: Reactive powder concrete, Steel ties, Crack width, Load carrying capacity.