Mathematical Model for Early-Aged UHPFRC Compressive Strength Changes

Abstract

Compressive strength is the most important mechanical index of ultra-high performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC). The rule of changes in compressive strength in early-aged UHPFRC is of great significance to guide concrete curing, formwork removal, and prestress stretching. Therefore, it is very necessary to study an accurate mathematical model to describe the change in compressive strength of UHPFRC at an early age. For this purpose, a new mathematical model of compressive strength age is proposed in this work for predicting the long-term strength of UHPFRC according to a few test data from early-aged UHPFRC. This new model can overcome the shortcomings of the existing models, such as the exponential model, logarithmic model, and polynomial model. The proposed model is first demonstrated by using four groups of compressive strength test data compiled from previous research studies. Subsequently, an experiment of early-aged UHPFRC compressive strength was carried out to further verify the proposed mathematical model. The mixed proportion used in the UHPFRC compressive strength test was 10.87:0.82:1 (powder:steel fiber:water), and the design strength grade was 120 MPa. Based on the UHPFRC experimental data, it was shown that the average fitting error and standard deviation of the new model were about 10%~20% of that of the logarithmic model and the polynomial model. The proposed model can precisely predict the compressive strength of UHPFRC, with a determination coefficient (R2) of 0.9974. The research results show that the average fitting error and standard deviation of this new model were significantly reduced when compared to the existing models, and the predicted compressive strength by the new model on the 60th day is the closest to the actual design strength grade of concrete. The greatest advantage of the proposed method lies in its simple formula, fast implementation, and no need for complex mathematical operations. It has been shown that the proposed model is superior to the existing models due to its higher fitting accuracy and prediction accuracy, and it can be better used to predict the later strength of UHPFRC by using only a few compressive strength test data taken at the early age stage.