Developing High-Early-Strength UHPC for Prestressed Concrete Bridges

For the current ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) ¨C Ductal, the compressive strengths 24 hours after forming are low, and the manufacturer of the Ductal brand recommends 48 hours of steam treatment curing. Also, UHPC ¨C Ductal is available as patented blends of concrete mix from only one manufacturer in North America. To overcome these shortcomings, based on an experimental program, a new high early strength UHPC (HES-UHPC) mix with local materials has been developed. Local materials are desirable to keep costs down both for research and for possible implementation of this concrete in future real bridge construction. The newly developed HES-UHPC mix produced an average 1 day compressive strength of 10458 psi (72.1 MPa).