Characterize of flexural performance of Ultra-high Performance Concrete without thermal curing

Abstract:

An experimental study on the flexural performance of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) without thermal curing was carried out via third-point bending tests. Based on the test results, discussions on how to effectively evaluate the flexural performance of UHPC were presented. The third-point bending test results indicated that first cracking point of UHPC was hard to be determined, while significant “deflection hardening” behavior was noticed. Combined with the load-deflection curves of UHPC with different steel fiber dosage, both advantages and disadvantages of three evaluation methods of ASTM C1018, JSCE SF4 and ASTM C1609 commonly used were discussed. The results showed that the flexural strength related to different mid-span deflections given by ASTM C1609 can be regarded as more meaningful parameters for UHPC structure design, which can meet the various needs of the UHPC structural design.