Low Cost Ultra-High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) with Flash Metakaolin

Abstract:

Ultra-High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) presents remarkable mechanical and durability properties. Concretes can be considered as UHPFRC when compressive strength and direct tensile strength reach respectively reach 150 MPa and at 7 MPa at 28 days [1]. The UHPFRC matrix is generally composed by a high amount of cement and silica fume as binder, steel fibers, very low Water/Binder (W/B) ratio and high rang water reducer. Special heat treatment is often required in order to achieve compressive strengths over 150-200 MPa. This work focuses on the development of low cost UHPFRC with less energy in production process in order to widespread its use. To reach this objective, some mix criteria have been set up: use of local materials, substitution of silica fume by less expensive and more available flash metakaolin, reduced cement content, without heat treatment. Four UHPFRC mixtures have been fixed. The reference one incorporates silica fume. In the second one, metakaolin substitutes weight by weight silica fume. Two other mixtures have been designed using a wet packing method [2] and a metakaolin water absorption test [3], in order to optimize the metakaolin/cement mass ratio and to reduce cement content. Workability and mechanical tests have been carried out. Results show that the weight by weight substitution of silica fume by flash metakaolin leads to a slight reduction (about 5%) of strengths but a more important reduction of cost (about 10% of UHPFRC material cost per m³). The optimization of metakaolin/cement ratio allows reaching equivalent performances of silica fume reference mix and reducing cement content without significant strengths decrease.

• Periodical: Key Engineering Materials (Volumes 629-630)
• Pages: 55-63
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.629-630.55
• Online since: October 2014
• Authors: E. Nguyen Amanjean*, T. Vidal
• Keywords: Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC), Metakaolin (MK), Silica Fume (SF), Ultra-High Performances

References

[1] AFGC-SETRA, Interim recommendations, Ultra-High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete. (2013).

[2] Wong H.H.C.; Kwan A.K.H., Packing density of cementitious materials: part 1-measurement using a wet packing method. Materials and Structures 41 (2008) 689-701.

DOI: 10.1617/s11527-007-9274-5

[3] Mechling J.M., Lecomte A., Merriaux K., Measurement of the absorption of water of the mineral admixtures in concrete by evaporometry. Materials and Structures 36 (2003) 32-39.

DOI: 10.1007/bf02481568

[4] Richard P., and Cheyrezy M., Composition of Reactive Powder Concretes. Cement and Concrete Research 25(7) (1995) 1501-1511.

DOI: 10.1016/0008-8846(95)00144-2

[5] Rossi P., Arca A.; Parant E., Fakhri P., Bending and Compressive Behaviors of a New Cement Composite. Cement and Concrete Research 35 (2005) 27-33.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cemconres.2004.05.043

[6] Park S.H., Kim D.J., Ryu G.S., Koh K.T., Tensile behavior of Ultra High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete, Cement and Concrete Composite 34 (2012) 172-184.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2011.09.009

[7] El-Dieb A.S., Mechanical, durability and microstructural characteristics of ultra-high strength self-compacting concrete incorporating steel fibers. Materials and Designs 30 (2009) 4286-4292.

DOI: 10.1016/j.matdes.2009.04.024

[8] Tafraoui A., Escadeillas G., Lebaili S., Vidal T., Metakaolin in the formulation of UHPC. Construction and Building Materials 23 (2009) 669-674.

DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2008.02.018

[9] Yang S.L., Millard S.G., Soutsos M.N., Barnett S.J., Le T.T., Influence of aggregate and curing regime on the mechanical properties of ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHPFRC). Construction and Building Materials 23 (2009).

DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2008.11.012

[10] Bonneau O., Lachemi M., Dallaire E., Dugat J., Aitcin P. -C., Mechanical properties and durability of two industrial reactive powders concretes. ACI Materials Journal (1997) 286-290.

[11] NF EN 196-1, Cement: part 1: Composition, specification and conformity criteria for common cement, AFNOR (2006).

[12] Wille K., Naaman A. E., Parra-Montesinos G. J., Ultra High Performance Concrete with Compressive Strength Exceeding 150 MPa (22 ksi): A Simpler Way. ACI Material Journal (2011) 108(1) 46-54.

DOI: 10.14359/51664215

[13] Corinaldesi V., Moriconi G., Mechanical and thermal evaluation of Ultra High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete for engineering applications. Construction and Building Materials 26 (2012) 289-294.

DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2011.06.023

[14] Yu R., Spiesz P., Brouwers H.J.H., Mix design and properties assessment of Ultra-high Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC). Cement and Concrete Research 56 (2014) 29-39.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cemconres.2013.11.002

[15] Máca P., Sovják R., Konvalinka P., Mix design of UHPFRC and its response to projectile impact. International Journal of Impact Engineering 63 (2014) 158-163.

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2013.08.003