Development of economic, practical and green ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete verified by particle packing model

Abstract

Ultra High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) is a type of concrete which possess very high compressive strength (more than 150 MPa) and high ductility which makes it a suitable material for manufacturing pre-cast structural elements. Manufacturing this type of concrete in large-scale is however not appealing to industry which leads to limited application. The main reason for this can be attributed to the manufacturing cost of UHPC due to the high cementitious materials and fine aggregate (less than 600 μm) contents. This study focused on a step by step procedure making UHPFRC more practical, cost-effective and green by not only introducing coarse aggregate in the mix but also increasing the aggregate content, resulting in lower consumption of cementitious materials. The particle packing of the mix design developments were compared to the modified Andreasen & Andersen particle packing model and it was confirmed that an increase in cement content can result in a reduction in strength when the combined particle size distribution contains too many particles of a similar size. The final proposed mix designs per compressive strength generates 10 % less CO2 and 75 % more affordable than the typical commercial UHPFRC.