scholarly journals Experimental Investigation and Prediction of Compressive Strength of Ultra-High Performance Concrete Containing Supplementary Cementitious Materials

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jisong Zhang ◽  
Yinghua Zhao ◽  
Haijiang Li

Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) has superior mechanical properties and durability to normal strength concrete. However, the high amount of cement, high environmental impact, and initial cost are regarded as disadvantages, restricting its wider application. Incorporation of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) in UHPC is an effective way to reduce the amount of cement needed while contributing to the sustainability and cost. This paper investigates the mechanical properties and microstructure of UHPC containing fly ash (FA) and silica fume (SF) with the aim of contributing to this issue. The results indicate that, on the basis of 30% FA replacement, the incorporation of 10% and 20% SF showed equivalent or higher mechanical properties compared to the reference samples. The microstructure and pore volume of the UHPCs were also examined. Furthermore, to minimise the experimental workload of future studies, a prediction model is developed to predict the compressive strength of the UHPC using artificial neural networks (ANNs). The results indicate that the developed ANN model has high accuracy and can be used for the prediction of the compressive strength of UHPC with these SCMs.

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin Paul Sidodikromo ◽  
Zhijun Chen ◽  
Muhammad Habib

Introduction: Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (UHPC) is an advanced type of concrete in the Civil Engineering industry. It is a cement-based composite which exhibits improved mechanical and durable properties showing a high compressive strength of not less than 150 MPa and high tensile strength of not less than 7 MPa. Objective: In this article, a review of the use of a different type of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) including fibers is made for obtaining the desired UHPC. Discussion and Conclusion: For this, it is vital to understand the principles of UHPC. UHPC has several advantages over normal strength concrete (NSC) and high strength concrete (HSC) with some commercially ready UHPC’s available, but the use of it is restricted due to the limited design codes. The influence of the curing type also plays a vital role in the overall performance of UHPC.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 770 ◽  
Author(s):  
How-Ji Chen ◽  
Yi-Lin Yu ◽  
Chao-Wei Tang

Compared with ordinary concrete, ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) has excellent toughness and better impact resistance. Under high temperatures, the microstructure and mechanical properties of UHPC may seriously deteriorate. As such, we first explored the properties of UHPC with a designed 28-day compressive strength of 120 MPa or higher in the fresh mix phase, and measured its hardened mechanical properties at seven days. The test variables included: the type of cementing material and the mixing ratio (silica ash, ultra-fine silicon powder), the type of fiber (steel fiber, polypropylene fiber), and the fiber content (volume percentage). In addition to the UHPC of the experimental group, pure concrete was used as the control group in the experiment; no fiber or supplementary cementitious materials (silica ash, ultra-fine silicon powder) were added to enable comparison and discussion and analysis. Then, the UHPC-1 specimens of the experimental group were selected for further compressive, flexural, and splitting strength tests and SEM observations after exposure to different target temperatures in an electric furnace. The test results show that at room temperature, the 56-day compressive strength of the UHPC-1 mix was 155.8 MPa, which is higher than the >150 MPa general compressive strength requirement for ultra-high-performance concrete. The residual compressive strength, flexural strength, and splitting strength of the UHPC-1 specimen after exposure to 300, 400, and 500 °C did not decrease significantly, and even increased due to the drying effect of heating. However, when the temperature was 600 °C, spalling occurred, so the residual mechanical strength rapidly declined. SEM observations confirmed that polypropylene fibers melted at high temperatures, thereby forming other channels that helped to reduce the internal vapor pressure of the UHPC and maintain a certain residual strength.


2020 ◽  
Vol 309 ◽  
pp. 26-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef Fládr ◽  
Petr Bílý ◽  
Tomáš Trtík ◽  
Roman Chylík ◽  
Vladimír Hrbek

The paper compares macromechanical and micromechanical properties of high-performance concrete containing supplementary cementitious materials and basalt aggregate. The aggregate was either a common unprocessed crushed basalt aggregate or crushed basalt aggregate the coarse fractions (4/8 and 8/16 mm) of which were washed by water and dried before use. The observed macro-mechanical properties were compressive strength, tensile strength, elastic modulus and depth of penetration of water under pressure; the paper is focused on the first observed property, which is the basic material characteristic. On the microscale, the thickness of the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) was determined by nanoindentation. The positive influence of supplementary cementitious materials and aggregate washing on compressive strength was confirmed and the correlation between macromechanical and micromechanical characteristics was proved.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1472
Author(s):  
Sungwoo Park ◽  
Siyu Wu ◽  
Zhichao Liu ◽  
Sukhoon Pyo

Although ultra high-performance concrete (UHPC) has great performance in strength and durability, it has a disadvantage in the environmental aspect; it contains a large amount of cement that is responsible for a high amount of CO2 emissions from UHPC. Supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), industrial by-products or naturally occurring materials can help relieve the environmental burden by reducing the amount of cement in UHPC. This paper reviews the effect of SCMs on the properties of UHPC in the aspects of material properties and environmental impacts. It was found that various kinds of SCMs have been used in UHPC in the literature and they can be classified as slag, fly ash, limestone powder, metakaolin, and others. The effects of each SCM are discussed mainly on the early age compressive strength, the late age compressive strength, the workability, and the shrinkage of UHPC. It can be concluded that various forms of SCMs were successfully applied to UHPC possessing the material requirement of UHPC such as compressive strength. Finally, the analysis on the environmental impact of the UHPC mix designs with the SCMs is provided using embodied CO2 generated during the material production.


2019 ◽  
Vol 292 ◽  
pp. 102-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef Fládr ◽  
Petr Bílý ◽  
Karel Šeps ◽  
Roman Chylík ◽  
Vladimír Hrbek

High-performance concrete is a very specific type of concrete. Its production is sensitive to both the quality of compounds used and the order of addition of particular compounds during the homogenization process. The mechanical properties were observed for four dosing procedures of each of the three tested concrete mixtures. The four dosing procedures were identical for the three mixes. The three mixes varied only in the type of supplementary cementitious material used and in water content. The water content difference was caused by variable k-value of particular additives. The water-to-binder ratio was kept constant for all the concretes. The additives used were metakaolin, fly ash and microsilica. The comparison of particular dosing procedures was carried out on the values of basic mechanical properties of concrete. The paper compares compressive strength and depth of penetration of water under pressure. Besides the comparsion of macro-mechanical properties, the effect of microsilica and fly ash additives on micro-mechanical properties was observed with the use of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and nanoindentation data analysis. Nanoindentation was used to determine the thickness and strength of interfacial transition zone (ITZ) for different sequence of addition of cement, additive and aggregate. The thickness obtained by nanoindentation was further investigated by SEM EDS line scanning.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1929 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-You Wu ◽  
Jing Zhang ◽  
Changjiang Liu ◽  
Zhoulian Zheng ◽  
Paul Lambert

Nanomaterials have been increasingly employed for improving the mechanical properties and durability of ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) with high volume supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). Recently, graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets have appeared as one of the most promising nanomaterials for enhancing the properties of cementitious composites. To date, a majority of studies have concentrated on cement pastes and mortars with fewer investigations on normal concrete, ultra-high strength concrete, and ultra-high-performance cement-based composites with a high volume of cement content. The studies of UHPC with high volume SCMs have not yet been widely investigated. This paper presents an experimental investigation into the mini slump flow and physical properties of such a UHPC containing GO nanosheets at additions from 0.00 to 0.05% by weight of cement and a water–cement ratio of 0.16. The study demonstrates that the mini slump flow gradually decreases with increasing GO nanosheet content. The results also confirm that the optimal content of GO nanosheets under standard curing and under steam curing is 0.02% and 0.04%, respectively, and the corresponding compressive and flexural strengths are significantly improved, establishing a fundamental step toward developing a cost-effective and environmentally friendly UHPC for more sustainable infrastructure.


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