Evaluation of mechanical properties for high strength and ultrahigh strength concretes

Abstract

Due to fast growth in urbanisation, a highly developed infrastructure is essential for economic growth and prosperity. One of the major problems is to preserve, maintain, and retrofit these structures. To meet the requirements of construction industry, the basic information on all the mechanical properties of various concretes is essential. This paper presents the details of development of various concretes, namely, normal strength concrete (around 50 MPa), high strength concrete (around 85 MPa) and ultra high strength concrete (UHSC) (around 120 MPa) including their mechanical properties. The various mechanical properties such as compressive strength, split tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, fracture energy and tensile stress vs crack width have been obtained from the respective test results. It is observed from the studies that a higher value of compressive strength, split tensile strength and fracture energy is achieved in the case of UHSC, which can be attributed to the contribution at different scales viz., at the meso scale due to the fibers and at the micro scale due to the close packing of grains which is on account of good grading of the particles. Micro structure of UHSC mix has been examined for various magnifications to identify the pores if any present in the mix. Brief note on characteristic length and brittleness number has been given.