The College of Engineering, University of Baghdad, witnessed a public defense for master’s student Baraa Abbas Hamza Albakry from the Department of Civil Engineering / Construction Materials, for her thesis titled: “Evaluating the Strength of Sustainable Reactive Powder Concrete by Adopting Different Types of Curing” on Sunday, September 14, 2025, in the hall of Professor Dr. Khalid Shaker, under the supervision of Professor Dr. Zena K. Abbas.
The thesis focused on developing sustainable reactive powder concrete by using local materials , with a compressive strength of not less than 90 MPa, and evaluating the effects of different curing regimes, including (autogenous + normal curing), coating curing (using Antisol WB IQ), and (accelerated curing (50 ± 2)°Cwith different cycles + normal curing), compared to normal curing as the control curing regime. The study also investigated the use of alternative materials for fine aggregate and partial replacement of aggregate with local waste materials, including waste brick and waste thermostone residues at 15% and 30%, contributing to reducing environmental impact and enhancing sustainability.
The results demonstrated that accelerated curing achieved the highest performance, and that sustainable mixtures containing waste brick or waste thermostone were effective alternatives to conventional reactive powder concrete, particularly in enhancing mechanical strength.
The thesis also provided several scientific recommendations, including conducting further studies on long-term performance, exploring other waste materials as sand replacements, or their combination to produce hybrid recycled fine aggregate with improved properties, evaluating concrete durability under environmental and chemical conditions, using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy to study internal structure, and investigating replacement ratios exceeding 30%.
After a public academic discussion by the honorable members of the discussion committee and listening to the researcher’s defense, the researcher was awarded a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering.
