Economic and sustainable UHPC at scale: Material variability study and application to axial columns

Abstract

The high cost of robust UHPC of a proprietary nature and expensive constituents hinders mass production and expansion into full structural applications. This study provides experimental research and validation to support new initiatives in scalable, economical UHPC of a semi-proprietary nature that leverages local and sustainable materials and explores the use of raw recycled tire fibers. The study provides comprehensive material trials and mechanical characterization validated through the fabrication and testing of five full-scale axial UHPC columns with varying reinforcement ratios, fiber ratios, and types of fibers. Overall, the result shows that incorporating local and sustainable components into proprietary mixtures does not compromise the mechanical properties of UHPC with compressive strength of more than 150 MPa and modulus of elasticity ranging from 41.8 to 43.4 GPa. In addition, the axial strength capacity of economical UHPC columns, designed accordingly with ACI, performed better than non-ACI-compliant columns by up to 26.8 %.