Tensile Strength of Reactive Powder Concrete

This study presents a comparison between different testing procedures to determine the tensile strength of the Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC). The tensile strength test methods included direct tensile test, two indirect tensile tests, splitting test and double punch test. In this study, the RPC was designed to obtain a nominal compressive strength of 100 MPa at the age of 28 days. Macro-steel fibres were used to reinforce the RPC by volumetric percentages of 1%, 2% and 3%. By comparing the results of the three tensile tests, it was shown that the double punch test presents more accurate results of the RPC tensile strength than the splitting test. In addition, the double punch test is much easier to perform than the other test methods used to determine the tensile strength of RPC. The test results also showed that the optimum macro-steel fibre percentage is 3% which obtain the highest tensile strength of the RPC