Reactive Powder Concrete for Producing Sewer, Culvert, and Pressure Pipes

Abstract : This report documents research to develop and demonstrate the technical and economic viability of reactive powder concrete (RPC) a very high strength, high performance concrete material for producing precast sewer/culvert and pressure pipes with the ultimate program goals of gaining construction industry acceptance and implementing wide scale commercial fabrication of these products. By optimizing the design of the precast RPC pipes, it was projected that commercially competitive, lightweight units could be produced that would reduce handling, shipping, and installation times and provide improved resistance to attack by sulfates and other chemicals. Two mixtures, one flowable and the other zero slump, were selected as representative of RPC pipe production mixtures, and the hardened concrete properties were determined for each mixture. RPC prototype specimens were successfully cast using the wet cast, spun cast, dry cast, and packer head methods. The compressive strengths for RPC prototype specimens were in the range of 140 to 100 MPa. These specimens were steam cured for 24 hr at 70-90 deg C. The C wall pipe specimens cast at Lafarge using the packer head method performed well in both the pressure and three edge bearing tests. The Lafarge specimens showed no signs of leakage for internal pressures of 2.07 MPa and less. Based on results from casting of prototypes, it was concluded that RPC culvert and sewer pipes are technically feasible from a production standpoint. However, only sanitary sewer products appear to be economically viable as the culvert and conventional storm sewer applications appear to be well served by products currently on the market Based on the successful performances of packer head specimens in pressure and there edge bearing tests, it was recommended that research be continued in the development and commercialization of packer head production techniques for sanitary sewer pipe.