High-performance Concrete Materials Research Articles

A state-of-the-art assessment in developing advanced concrete materials for airport pavements with improved performance and durability

Concrete materials, as the main component of airport pavement, provide essential attributes such as strength and toughness required by airport pavement. With the rapid development of air transportation, the compression and cracking resistance performances required by airport pavement are dramatically boosted with the ever-growing weight and the frequency of aircraft. In recent years, high-performance concrete materials with excellent properties have shown great potential in improving durability and extending the service life of pavement. This review presents a-state-of-the-art assessment guided by the pavement performance requirement, material design mechanism, application cases and future application guidance of advanced cementing materials in airport pavement improvement. Firstly, the functions of each structural layer of airport pavement and their effects on the surface layer are summarized. Then, the design mechanism and application cases of advanced concrete materials were summarized with the future application guidance to be given. Finally, the application scenarios, testing mechanism and testing effect of nondestructive testing methods for airport pavement performance evaluation are summarized. This review provides a comprehensive assessment of the development and applications of advanced concrete materials for airport pavement, paving avenue to achieve high performance and long service life of airport pavement.

Study of Compressive Strength of Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete Cubes

Abstract: Nowadays, complex civil engineering work requires high-performance concrete materials. Researchers worked on reinforced concrete to provide sustainable solutions. Materials like carbon, glass, eggshell etc are used for reinforcement with concrete. While study of reinforced concrete cubes performance, compressive strength is an important parameter that need to be focused more. In this paper, experiments were carried out to study the influence of percentage glass fiber reinforcement in concrete on compressive strength. In order to evaluate Compressive Strength (N/mm2) obtained on CTM for GFRC cube of Size: 150x150x150 mm and the age of cube was kept 7 days, 14 days and 28 days. It was observed that maximum compressive strength can be achieved for glass fiber reinforcement of 10 % when age id cube is kept 28 days.

Application of Scheffe's Simplex Lattice Model in concrete mixture design and performance enhancement

This comprehensive literature review delves into the application of Scheffe's Simplex Lattice Model for optimizing cement concrete mixtures, with a particular emphasis on its impact on material properties and sustainability. The review meticulously outlines the principles, historical context, and advantages of Scheffe's model, providing a nuanced understanding of its significance. Comparative analyses with traditional and alternative optimization techniques in concrete mix design illuminate the distinct advantages of statistical methods, especially Scheffe's model. The review critically examines the challenges and limitations associated with applying Scheffe's model, addressing issues related to the complexity of concrete mixtures and computational demands. Potential avenues for improvement are explored, suggesting refinements to handle non-linearity, incorporate advanced optimization algorithms, and streamline computational requirements. Additionally, the review highlights emerging trends in statistical modeling for concrete mixture optimization, such as the integration of machine learning and data-driven approaches, signaling the evolving landscape of concrete technology. In conclusion, the literature underscores Scheffe's Simplex Lattice Model as a valuable and versatile tool with far-reaching implications for the advancement of concrete mixture design methodologies. The call to action encourages ongoing research and development to refine the model, explore emerging trends, and address practical challenges, positioning Scheffe's model as a cornerstone in the pursuit of sustainable, resilient, and high-performance concrete materials. The study highlights Scheffe's Simplex Lattice Model as a robust statistical tool for optimizing cement concrete mixtures, demonstrating its efficacy in improving performance indicators like compressive strength and durability. This systematic approach offers a paradigm shift from empirical methods, fostering a nuanced understanding of concrete components' relationships and paving the way for tailored material properties and enhanced sustainability in construction. The call to action urges further research to refine the model, address challenges, and explore hybrid approaches, ultimately advancing concrete mixture design methodologies towards greater efficiency and precision.

Research on the Electrosensitivity and Electrothermal Properties of Intelligent High-Performance Concrete Materials.

In order to enhance traditional building materials, High-performance concrete (HPC) is being modified by adding carbon and basalt fibers with volume contents of 0.75-1.25% and 0.15-0.35%, respectively. The original mechanical properties are maintained while developing the material's intelligent self-sensing and self-heating functions, which are tested for pressure sensitivity and bending sensitivity, and with electrothermal tests. The results demonstrate that carbon fiber can significantly reduce the matrix resistivity of high-performance concrete, reaching the percolation threshold at a content of 1%. The inclusion of basalt fibers in the material results in a decrease in resistivity. However, the addition of mixed fibers leads to improved mechanical-electrical sensitivity under compression and bending, with a positive hybrid effect. The optimal contents for carbon fiber and basalt are 0.75% and 0.3%, respectively. In electrothermal tests, the specimen can reach a temperature of 104.5 °C with a heating rate of 25.86 °C/h, indicating the potential for self-monitoring and the electric melting of ice and snow. These findings provide support for the intelligent improvement of building structures in the new era.

Application of new green building materials in civil engineering

About 50% of the world's energy consumption comes from the construction industry. At the same time, more than 60% of the raw materials that humans obtain from nature, such as wood, stone, sand, etc., are used to build various buildings. During the construction process, the processing of these materials can cause a large amount of pollution. For example, the production of concrete can cause an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. These phenomena urge us to improve and upgrade building materials to ensure that the basic functions of the building are achieved and its safety is guaranteed on the basis of minimum pollution. Therefore, green buildings have emerged and gradually received attention. This paper mainly introduces two new concrete materials (one is the concrete material produced by Carbicrete Company that can realize the negative emission of carbon in production and use, and the other is high-performance concrete material), photovoltaic power generation system that can be installed on various structures of buildings and new SiO2 aerogel building materials (mainly used in thermal insulation felt and concrete, which can ensure the heat resistance of materials while reducing the thermal conductivity).

FLY ASH AND SILICA FUME SUBSTITUTION ON COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH AND PERMEABILITY OF CONCRETE IN THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT

Cement, as a concrete-forming material, is a contributor to CO2 emissions in the world. Reducing cement and substituting fly ash and silica fume as concrete substitution materials in the manufacture of concrete makes green concrete without lowering the quality of the concrete. Concrete in the marine environment is frequently destroyed by severe environmental elements, such as seawater penetration; hence, high-performance concrete materials are required. This research aims to analyze the effect of adding fly ash and silica fume on concrete compressive strength and permeability. The specimens made were then immersed in freshwater and seawater. Analysis of the compressive strength test result shows that the compressive strength values ​​for the samples treated with freshwater or seawater have exceeded the expected compressive strength of 30 MPa. The permeability test on the test object resulted in the supplementary fly ash to the concrete immersed in freshwater having a good value, i.e., the water penetration was below that required by DIN-1045, namely 5 cm. The penetration of concrete with fly ash impressed in seawater is good only in concrete with a 10% fly ash variation. The water penetration value still meets the requirements in concrete with silica fume for all variations with freshwater and seawater treatment.

Enhancing eco-concrete performance through synergistic integration of sugarcane, metakaolin, and crumb rubber: Experimental investigation and response surface optimization

Sustainable construction has gained paramount importance due to the consideration of the devastating effects of construction activities on the environment. Researchers are exploring innovative approaches to mitigate the carbon footprint and enhance the durability of concrete. In order to regulate the demand and cost of concrete constituents, such as cement and sand, there is a need to invent alternative materials and utilize various industrial and agricultural wastes instead of concrete ingredients, either partially or completely. The experimental investigation and optimization of eco-concrete composites by integrating sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA), metakaolin (MK), and crumb rubber (CR) are cutting-edge research areas that aim to develop environmentally friendly and high-performance concrete materials. The present research work has attempted to utilize SCBA up to 15% by weight of cement with an increment of 5%, MK as a fractional exchange of cement up to 15% with 5% intervals, and CR was utilized as fractional volumetric substitution of sand from 0% to 15% in concrete. Different sets of combinations were evaluated to identify effects on density, workability, compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength, and microstructural properties. This study has obtained satisfactory results when compared to the control concrete for 10% substitution of cement with MK and 10% substitution of cement with SCBA, along with a 10% replacement of fine aggregate (i.e., sand) with CR. The results were analyzed and optimized using Response Surface Methodology (RSM), which illuminated a strong correlation between experimental findings and RSM models, with an R squared (R2) value of 0.9580. The experimental findings and RSM models showed a significant correlation. The increment in the substitution of sand with CR resulted in a decline in strength, and it can be controlled by adopting different effective pretreatment techniques for CR.

Performance Analysis of High-Performance Concrete Materials in Civil Construction.

This paper develops the mechanical and durable samples of C50 high-performance concrete, studies the mechanical properties, crack resistance, sulfate attack resistance, frost resistance, and impermeability of concrete with different mineral admixtures of mineral powder and fly ash, and obtains the best mineral admixture of mineral powder and fly ash to improve the performance of high-performance concrete. The results show that the doping effect is the best when the ratio of prepared mineral powder to fly ash is 3:2. With the increase in the mineral powder-fly ash admixture, the slump and expansion of high-performance concrete decrease rapidly at first and then slowly. In total, 60% doping is the turning point; the compressive and flexural strengths of concrete decreased slowly at first and then rapidly. Taking 30% of the admixture as the turning point, 35% of the mineral powder fly ash is generally selected. By mixing and adding a certain proportion of fly ash and mineral powder admixtures, the crack resistance of concrete is enhanced, and the shrinkage and cracking are reduced. The corrosion resistance coefficient will exceed 88%, the relative dynamic elastic modulus will exceed 95%, and the impermeability grade will reach P17. The durability of concrete can be improved by adding mineral admixtures.

Carbon nanofibers and polyvinyl-alcohol fiber hybrid-reinforced high-performance concrete: Mechanical property, chloride penetration resistance, and material characterization

The hybridization of nanomaterials and macroscopic fibers is currently a popular topic. The aim of this study was to explore the application potential of incorporating carbon nanofibers (CNFs) into concrete and to analyze the effect of CNFs dispersant on concrete slump and early strength. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers and CNFs were used to prepare composite fiber-reinforced (CNFs-PVA) concrete to improve the continuity of concrete properties at the micron/nanometer scale. The engineering properties such as compressive strength, flexural strength and resistance to chloride ion erosion performance of the concrete were investigated, and the microstructure of concrete was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning-electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray computed tomography (X-CT). The results showed that CNFs could improve the early strength. The combined use of CNFs and PVA increased the 28-day compressive and flexural strength by 23.38% and 28.73%, respectively, compared to the control group. Correspondingly, the electric flux and Migration rate of chloride ions (DRCM) were minimized. From the SEM and XRD test results, it is clear that CNFs and PVA fibers can: (i) bridge low-density C-S-H to form higher-density C-S-H gels, (ii) form longer chain-like fibers with enhanced load transfer and chloride binding capacity, (iii) act as internal curing agents to enhance hydration at the interface, (iv) promote the formation of the aluminum phase hydration products and calcium carbonate phase, and (v) CNFs and PVA refine the pore size by increasing the gel pores and reducing the percentage of microcracks. The combined results indicate that the improved performance of CNFs-PVA is due to the combined effect of bridging and nucleation of hydration products by CNFs, adsorption of hydration products by CNFs-PVA, and promotion of pore filling by the generated hydrides such as calcium carbonate and ettringite. These findings provide new insights for the design of high-performance concrete materials.

State of the Art on Waste Glass Powder as Supplementary Cementitious Material

As a new type of high-performance concrete material, glass powder (GP) concrete is beneficial to the environment and concrete performance. However, the specific application method still needs to be studied. This paper introduces the structure theory of glass and the mechanism by which glass powder affects concrete. Through experiments, the effects of glass powder particle size, content, alkali content, and other factors on alkali-silica reaction (ASR) expansion, mechanical properties, and durability of concrete are compared. It is proven that glass powder can be used as a gel material in concrete. The existing problems in the research are summarized, and the latest research perspectives and methods are suggested.

Advantages and Performance of Novel Sustainable Green Concretes

The popularity of concrete is accompanied by terrible consumption, resulting in huge carbon emissions in our environment. Accordingly, the concept of sustainable development has been valued in the cement material production industry. Based on high-performance concrete, green high-performance concrete materials have been proposed and become a research hotspot. This study sorts out and provides the recognized characteristics of green concrete and introduces different environmentally friendly green concrete types from three ways of reducing the environmental burden. The fly ash concrete shows the characteristics which contain abundant resources, low cost and wide application scope. And for recycled concrete, it can greatly reduce the environmental impact caused by construction waste and reduce the production of traditional concrete. Nano-development of concrete would improve the properties of conventional concrete, to achieve greater strength with minimal environmental burden. Results show that green concrete saves the amount of cement and concrete, is environmentally friendly, and has high strength, high durability, and crack resistance compared with traditional concrete.

Unravelling the Relations between and Predictive Powers of Different Testing Variables in High Performance Concrete Experiments: The Data-Driven Analytical Methods

This study proposes and applies a systematic data analysis methodology to analyse experimental data for high-performance concrete (HPC) samples with different admixtures for offshore fan foundation grouting materials uses. In contrast with other relevant research, including experimental studies, the materials physics and chemistry studies, or cementitious material portfolio determination studies, this data-driven analysis provides a deep exploration of the experimental variables associated with the test data. To offer complete and in-depth perspectives, several methods are employed for the data analyses, including correlation analysis, cosine similarity analysis, simple linear regression (SLR) modelling, and heat map and heat-based tabularised visualisations; the outcome is a proposed methodology that is easily implementable. The results from these methods are validated using a pairwise comparison approach (PCA) to avoid unnecessary interference between data variables. There are several potential contributions from this work, including insights for cohered groups of variables, techniques for double check and ‘third check’, an established ‘knowledge base’ consisting of 504 SLR predictive models with their effectiveness (significance) and prediction accuracy (data-model fitness) used in practical applications, an alternative visualisations of the results, three data transforms which can be omitted in a future analysis, and three valuable theory-linking perspectives (e.g., for the relationships between destructive and non-destructive tests with respect to the variable categories). The implication that some variables are interchangeable will make future experiments less labour intensive and time consuming for pre-project HPC material testing.

Toughness, Reinforcing Mechanism, and Durability of Hybrid Steel Fiber Reinforced Sulfoaluminate Cement Composites

As a low-carbon ecological cement-based material, SAC (sulfoaluminate cement) has become a research hotspot. This study developed a SAC-based high-performance concrete material with good durability and high toughness. The mechanical properties of different scales of MSF (macro steel fiber) and mSF (micro steel fiber) reinforced sulfoaluminate cement-based composites were mainly studied, including their compressive strength, flexural strength, toughness index, and toughness ratio, and their resistance to sulfate erosion was characterized. The results show that adding MSF and HSF (hybrid steel fibers) can significantly improve concrete’s compressive and flexural strength compared with the Plain group. The compressive strength of SSF1 (1% MSF) and SSF2 (1.5% MSF) increased by 10.9%, 19.6%, and the compressive strength of HSF1 (0.1% mSF, 1.4% MSF), HSF2 (0.2% mSF, 1.3%MSF), HSF3 (0.3% mSF, 1.2% MSF), and HSF4 (0.5% mSF, 1.0% MSF) increased by 23.9%, 33.7%, 37.0%, 29.3%, respectively, while the flexural strength of HSF1, HSF2, HSF3, and HSF4 groups increased by 51.4%, 84.9%, 88.1%, and 64.2%. Compared with the single steel fiber (SSF) group, the HSF group has higher initial crack strength, equivalent flexural strength, toughness index, and toughness ratio. Hybrid fibers have a higher synergistic effect when mSF content is 0.2–0.3% and MSF content is 1.2–1.3%. The mechanism of multi-scale reinforcement of hybrid-steel-fiber-enhanced sulfoaluminate cement-based composites was researched. MSF bridges macro-cracks, mSF bridges micro-cracks, and these two different scales of steel fibers, through filling, bridging, anchoring, pulling off, and pulling out, improve the toughness of composite materials. The mechanism of sulfate corrosion resistance of sulfoaluminate cement-based composites was obtained. SO42− entered the matrix and reacted and formed AFt, filling the matrix’s pores. The whole process is similar to the self-healing process of concrete.

Reduction of Environmental Load and Development of High-Performance Concrete Materials

Reduction of Environmental Load and Development of High-Performance Concrete Materials

Finite Element Analysis and Long-Term Monitoring of a Highway Overpass Bridge with Newly Constructed Link Slabs and Modified Bearings

Joint failure, which causes leakage in bridge decks as well as deterioration in girders and substructures, is one of the most common concerns in highway bridges. Therefore, link slabs have been considered as a preventive maintenance method in eliminating these joints. This paper presents a pilot project that constructed the link slab system in Maryland, U.S., with modified bearings to improve its durability and reduce maintenance costs. Compared with the traditional bearing replacement design for the link slab systems, this project proposes a more economical method by removing the anchor bolts and restricting sliding plates of the fixed bearings at both abutments to match the designed boundary conditions while avoiding the high cost of jacking girders and replacing bearings. Furthermore, numerical analysis and structural health monitoring were conducted and validated to investigate the effectiveness of the link slab design with various high performance concrete materials. After the one-year monitoring period, the link slab system is verified to be in fully functional condition and the bearing modification design is verified to be effective.

Innovative Structural Applications of High Performance Concrete Materials in Sustainable Construction

It is well-known that concrete is the most widely utilised construction material in the world [...]

A Comprehensive Study of the Mechanical and Durability Properties of High-Performance Concrete Materials for Grouting Underwater Foundations of Offshore Wind Turbines.

With the increasing importance of offshore wind turbines, a critical issue in their construction is the high-performance concrete (HPC) used for grouting underwater foundations, as such materials must be better able to withstand the extremes of the surrounding natural environment. This study produced and tested 12 concrete sample types by varying the water/binder ratio (0.28 and 0.30), the replacement ratios for fly ash (0%, 10%, and 20%) and silica fume (0% and 10%), as substitutes for cement, with ground granulated blast-furnace slag at a fixed proportion of 30%. The workability of fresh HPC is discussed with setting time, slump, and V-funnel flow properties. The hardened mechanical properties of the samples were tested at 1, 7, 28, 56, and 91 days, and durability tests were performed at 28, 56, and 91 days. Our results show that both fly ash (at 20%) and silica fume (at 10%) are required for effective filling of interstices and better pozzolanic reactions over time to produce HPC that is durable enough to withstand acid sulfate and chloride ion attacks, and we recommend this admixture for the best proportioning of HPC suitable for constructing offshore wind turbine foundations under the harsh underwater conditions of the Taiwan Bank. We established a model to predict a durability parameter (i.e., chloride permeability) of a sample using another mechanical property (i.e., compressive strength), or vice versa, using the observable relationship between them. This concept can be generalized to other pairs of parameters and across different parametric categories, and the regression model will make future experiments less laborious and time-consuming.

Bond behavior of high-performance fiber reinforced concrete (HPFRC) under direct tension pullout

Bond is the complex interaction that occurs at the interface of reinforcement and concrete, enabling force transfer between the two materials. The bonded interface is highly sensitive to any passive confinement that occurs normal to the contact area. The internal confinement that occurs in high-performance fiber reinforced concrete enhances the bond strength to such an extent that very short anchorage lengths suffice to develop a standard steel reinforcing bar. In order to evaluate and quantify the bond strength of bars embedded in novel cementitious materials, a combined experimental and analytical study was conducted using 13 specimens fabricated with high-performance concrete materials containing either steel or PVA fibers. Bond specimens were tested in a direct tension pullout (DTP) setup in order to quantify a lower bound for bond strength of bars in high performance fiber reinforced cementitious (FRC) matrices with tension-hardening properties, where the bar is developed in a tension stress field. The test setup was selected so as to minimize unaccountable confinement owing to support conditions and to eliminate out-of-plane effects due to flexural curvature. Study variables included the bar cover thickness and the type of FRC matrix used. The behavior of the test-specimens was analyzed in detail using nonlinear finite element modeling and an extensive database of published bond tests in high-performance strain-hardening cementitious matrices. Strain fields obtained from digital image correlation (DIC) were used to verify the kinematic hypotheses traditionally used in solving the field equations of bond (i.e. relationship of bar and concrete strains with the rate of slip along the anchorage), and to study the effect of enhanced fracture energy supplied by the fibers on bond mechanics. Striking improvements were observed on the measured HPFRC and ECC bond strength and failure mode over bond of conventional (unconfined) concrete. Direct comparison with existing pullout setups in the literature shows that bond strength measurements of the DTP formulation are more conservative and illustrate clearly the effect of bar cover on bond strength.

A Bayesian machine learning approach for inverse prediction of high-performance concrete ingredients with targeted performance

High-performance concrete (HPC) plays an important role in improving the sustainability and reliability of buildings and infrastructures. Machine learning predictive models have been used for predicting concrete performance from ingredients, however it remains a challenge to achieve inverse prediction of ingredients from targeted performances. This study proposes an in-house coded informatics-based materials analysis framework to enable computational design of HPC with targeted strength performance. The Gaussian processes (GP) emulator is used to construct the surrogate predictive model based-on 453 experimental measurements. The validity of the GP emulator is assessed using the leave-one-out cross-validation (LOO-CV) and also a separate validation dataset. The variance-based global sensitivity analysis, Sobol indices, is applied to understand the impact of physical ingredients on the HPC performances. The results suggest that the trained GP emulator can provide sufficiently accurate and reliable predictions, as well as reflect the real-world physicochemical nature of HPC materials. The inverse material design is achieved by the Bayesian inference method with a Markov chain Monte Carlo stochastic sampling method, the Metropolis-Hastings (MH) algorithm. Combining with the Bayesian inference method, the proposed design framework can infer a list of potential HPC formulae of a targeted performance, each evaluated by the likelihood of resulting in the targeted strength. The data-driven material analysis and design framework proposed in this study provides a novel approach to achieve performance-based design of HPC, with the potential to maximise resource efficiency and reduce economical cost. The methodology presented in this study can also be extended to be applied to a wide range of construction materials, targeting difference service performances including durability.

Risk-based assessment of blast-resistant design of ultra-high performance concrete columns

In conventional structural protective design against blast loads conservative structural designs are anticipated. However, unknown factors that include threat uncertainty, blast load variation, construction methods, material quality, etc., could impact the accuracy of assessment and design, sometimes even leading to an overestimation of structural capacity to explosive blast effects or an underestimation of actual blast pressures. In the present study, structural safety and reliability analyses of Ultra-high Performance Concrete (UHPC) columns under varying blast scenarios are performed. The variation in column dimensions, steel reinforcement, UHPC material strength, explosive range and mass, and numerical and blast load model errors are considered. The peak reflected pressure and impulse from the selected blast scenarios are derived based on variation in the explosive mass and standoff distance. Failure probabilities of columns made of this emerging high performance concrete material are then estimated. It was found that for a UHPC column designed for blast the probability of major damage given an explosive blast load varies from 1 × 10−2 to 1 × 10−5 for explosive ordnance and terrorism blast scenarios. This provides a reasonable margin of safety against major structural damage. It was also found that the risk reducing benefit of blast-resistant UHPC columns can be considerable.