Ultrahigh Performance Concrete: A Potential Material for Sustainable Marine Construction in View of the Service Life

Ultrahigh performance concretes (UHPC) are promising materials for the next generation infrastructures due to their superior mechanical properties and durability. In this paper, comparison studies were conducted to show the potential of UHPC for sustainable constructions in chloride environments in view of service life. For reinforced concrete, the service life was calculated with analytical solution of Ficks second law on diffusion. And for reinforced concrete with nonlinear initial chloride profiles and depth-dependent chloride diffusion coefficient, a numerical method based on the Crank-Nicholson numerical scheme was adopted to predict the service life. The results show that the reinforced concrete structures constructed and repaired with UHPC have much longer service life than that of normal concrete (NC) and high performance concrete (HPC). It hence needs less cost for maintenance and reconstruction, which fulfills the requirements of sustainable construction.