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Use of Ultra-High-Performance Concrete to Promote Sustainability in Pavement and Bridge Construction

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Green Building".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 October 2022) | Viewed by 4003

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Engineering & Software Consultants, Inc., Chantilly, VA 20151, USA
Interests: supplementary cementitious materials in concrete; chemical admixtures for concrete; self-consolidating concretes; internal curing; bond and dimensional stability of cementitious materials; ultra-high performance concrete

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) has become very popular in the construction industry over the last two decades due to the enhanced mechanical and durability properties compared to conventional concretes. UHPC is a special type of concrete designed to exhibit excellent self-consolidating properties during the fresh stage, as well as very high compressive and sustained tensile strengths; the latter are achieved by using large amounts of fiber reinforcement. Many cement and concrete suppliers worldwide have now commercially available UHPC products that are increasingly being used in construction projects, mainly in the bridge sector. UHPC is a costly material because of the large amount of cementitious material, fiber reinforcement, and chemical admixtures. This is the reason why it has solely been used in small bridge elements (i.e., connections for prefabricated bridge elements), where the material volume required is small enough to justify the higher material costs. However, transportation agencies are now more receptive to its use, and more applications in both bridge and pavement sectors where larger UHPC volumes are required are being identified, such as bridge repair/rehabilitation and bridge deck overlays, to name just a few.

The practice of using higher quality infrastructure materials should translate into longer service lives, which results in lower maintenance needs and a lower frequency of replacement; both items that directly contribute to the sustainability of our world’s infrastructure. In addition, secondary benefits associated with high early age strength development of UHPC-class materials can have a lower impact on the traveling public, resulting in fewer delays and detours, and a lower environmental impact.

This Special Issue aims at including manuscripts that discuss the use of UHPC as an innovative material that can increase the service life of pavements and bridges, reduce delays to the traveling public, and decrease the environmental impact of pavements and bridges, thus promoting sustainability in the field of infrastructure construction.

Dr. Igor de la Varga
Guest Editor

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 2327 KiB  
Article
Effects of Internal Curing on Inclusion in Prepackaged Cementitious Grout and Ultra-High Performance Concrete Materials
by Naveen Saladi, Igor De la Varga, Jose F. Munoz, Robert Spragg and Benjamin Graybeal
Sustainability 2022, 14(20), 13067; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142013067 - 12 Oct 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1309
Abstract
Proprietary, prepackaged materials such as some cementitious grouts and ultra-high performance concretes (UHPC) are commonly used in the bridge construction industry due to their convenience and desirable properties. However, due to particularities of their mixture designs, grouts and UHPC are prone to exhibit [...] Read more.
Proprietary, prepackaged materials such as some cementitious grouts and ultra-high performance concretes (UHPC) are commonly used in the bridge construction industry due to their convenience and desirable properties. However, due to particularities of their mixture designs, grouts and UHPC are prone to exhibit shrinkage, thus resulting in potential durability issues. This paper describes a step-by-step methodology for including internal curing (IC) in these types of materials, with the main goal of addressing some of their shrinkage and durability issues. A brief analysis of the relative cost implications is also provided, along with a compilation of experimental results to show the effect that IC has on important material properties. The results from this study indicate that the inclusion of IC in cementitious grouts and UHPC has the potential to increase durability, leading to more sustainable bridge structures with longer service lives. Full article
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21 pages, 5050 KiB  
Article
Tension-Stiffening Effect Consideration for Modeling Deflection of Cracked Reinforced UHPC Beams
by Le Teng, Rongling Zhang and Kamal Henri Khayat
Sustainability 2022, 14(1), 415; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14010415 - 31 Dec 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2139
Abstract
Tension-stiffening effects can significantly influence the flexural performance of cracked reinforced concrete specimens. Such effect is amplified for fiber-reinforced concrete, given the fact that fibers can bridge the cracks. The objective of this study was to develop a model to predict the deflection [...] Read more.
Tension-stiffening effects can significantly influence the flexural performance of cracked reinforced concrete specimens. Such effect is amplified for fiber-reinforced concrete, given the fact that fibers can bridge the cracks. The objective of this study was to develop a model to predict the deflection of cracked reinforced ultra-high performance concrete (R-UHPC) beam elements. The modeling approach characterized the average bending moment of inertia by combining the existing model used for conventional reinforced concrete and the analytical model of stress distribution of UHPC along the cross-section. The finite element analysis (FEA) was employed to evaluate the flexural deflection based on the average bending moment of inertia. The calculated load-deflection relationships have been compared to experimental results. The results indicated that the relative errors of deflection between predicted and experimental results can be controlled within 15%, compared to values ranging from 5% to 50% calculated by neglecting the tensile properties of cracked UHPC and values ranging from 5% to 30% calculated by effective inertia of bending moment of ACI code. Therefore, the developed model can be used in practice because it can secure the accuracy of deflection prediction of the R-UHPC beams. Such a simplified model also has higher sustainability compared to FEA using solid elements since it is easier and time-saving to be established and calculated. Full article
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