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Over the last twenty years, remarkable advances have taken place in the research and application of ultra-high performance
concrete (UHPC), which exhibits outstanding mechanical properties and excellent durability. It has shown great potential for
the next generation infrastructure construction from the sustainability point of view. This paper will give an overview on
UHPC, with particular focus on the properties, applications and perspectives. After several decades of development, several
types of commercial UHPC materials are available in the market, and the properties of UHPC have been characterized by nu-
merous experimental and field tests. Generally speaking, the performance (e.g. mechanical properties and durability) of UHPC
is much better than normal concrete (NC) and high performance concrete (HPC). Therefore, the uses of UHPC are growing all
over the world, in both fields of new construction and retrofitting. Nevertheless, it is still a special material and technology,
which is not worldwide accepted. So some application prospects of UHPC are briefly introduced in the paper, and the efforts,
which have to be made to turn UHPC into a widespread ‘regular’ technology, are discussed. This paper aims to help designers,
engineers, architects and infrastructure owners to know the capacities of UHPC and thus to increase the applications of this
material.
Citation: Gu C P, Ye G, Sun W. Ultrahigh performance concrete–properties, applications and perspectives. Sci China Tech Sci, 2015, 58: 587599, doi:
10.1007/s11431-015-5769-4
© Science China Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015 tech.scichina.com link.springer.com
588 Gu C P, et al. Sci China Tech Sci April (2015) Vol.58 No.4
UHPC is summarized. The perspectives on the development tions. Only few cases of practical applications of CRC and
of UHPC are also discussed. SIFCON were reported, and they were only used for part of
structures, such as balconies and staircases. Full-scale
structural use of these materials was not realized. To sum up,
2 Definition and development of UHPC in this period, the particle parking theory was firstly used
for UHPC design, and silica fume (SF) and steel fibers be-
UHPC is a new generation of cementitious material with gan to be added in UHPC. But UHPCs in this stage all have
very high strength, ductility and durability. According to their own problems, e.g. workability issues, so their appli-
AFGC (French Association for Civil Engineering) recom- cations are limited.
mendations [1], it is defined as a concrete with a character- In the 1990s, reactive powder concrete (RPC) was de-
istic compressive strength between 150 and 250 MPa. (Steel) veloped [5], which is a major milestone for the development
fibers are added in order to achieve the ductile behavior of UHPC. RPC is composed of very fine powders (cement,
under tension, and if possible, to dispense with the use of sand, quartz powder and silica fume), steel fibers and su-
conventional active or passive reinforcement. perplasticizer. The coarse aggregates are eliminated for en-
Generally speaking, the development of UHPC could be hancing the homogeneity of the matrix. By optimizing the
divided into four stages in terms of time, i.e. before 1980s; granular packing of the dry fine powders, the compact den-
1980s; 1990s and after 2000. sity of RPC could be improved, which gives RPC ultra-high
Before 1980s, because of the lack of the advanced tech- strength and durability. The compressive strength of RPC
nologies, UHPC could only be prepared in the lab with ranges from 200 MPa to 800 MPa. It has to be noted that,
some special methods, such as vacuum mixing and heat thanks to the development of superplasticizers, RPC shows
curing. At that time, researchers tried different kinds of very excellent workability, which is an essential require-
methods to make the concrete denser and more compact, so ment for the large-scale applications of cement-based mate-
that the strength of concrete could be improved. It was re- rials. This is RPC’s most important advantage compared
ported that the concrete with compressive strength up to 510 with previous UHPCs. In the late 1990s, the first marketed
MPa could be prepared with vacuum mixing and high tem- UHPC, which was named Ductal®, was developed based on
perature curing [2]. Although very high compressive the RPC technology. After that, another marketed UHPC,
strength could be achieved, the preparation of UHPC was BSI/Ceracem® concrete, was developed by group Eiffage
very difficult and energy-consuming at that time. and Sika. In 1997, the world’s first RPC structure, the Sher-
In the early 1980s, the micro-defect-free cement (MDF) brooke Bridge in Canada, was built. It was the first time that
was invented [3]. It is a type of cement paste prepared with RPC had been used for building a whole structure. However,
cement and special polymers, using a very low water to at that time, because of the high material cost, the applica-
cement ratio (w/c). The design principle of MDF is to re- tions of RPC were still scarce. In addition, the heat curing
move all the defects in the cement paste. The compressive and the milling of quartz sand were very energy-consuming,
strength of MDP could exceed 200 MPa. But, because of which also limited the applications of RPC. So generally
the expensive raw material and complicated preparation speaking, in the 1990s, RPC was invented and resulted in
process, this material only has very few applications. In commercial UHPCs. Moreover, the first RPC bridge was
spite that MDF had drawbacks, its design principle was built. But all these achievements didn’t lead to wide appli-
passed along. After the invention of MDF, DSP material cations of UHPC because of high material cost and energy
(densified system containing homogeneously arranged ul- consumption.
trafine particles) was prepared in Denmark by Bache [4]. From the 2000s, much progress has been made on the
The defects in DSP were reduced by improving the particle development of UHPC. Thanks to the progress in mineral
parking density. Superplasticizers and micro-silica were binder technology and increased availability of highly ef-
used in this material, along with the heat and pressure cur- fective superplasticizers, to prepare and produce UHPC is
ing. The maximum compressive strength of DSP could be no longer a problem. General characteristics and durability
up to 345 MPa. With the increasing compressive strength, of UHPC also have been widely studied. With the help of
the concrete becomes more brittle, which is the major prob- advanced material analysis technologies, the hydration pro-
lem for concrete with high strength. Hence, steel fibers be- cess and microstructure development of UHPC also have
gan to be used for preparing UHPC in the 1980s. Two good been revealed to some extent. Many researchers have pro-
examples are compact reinforced concrete (CRC) and slurry posed numerous formulations for preparing UHPCs. The
infiltrated fiber concrete (SIFCON), which occurred after researchers’ efforts were focused on reducing the material
DSP, and reinforced with high volume of steel fibers. Both cost and improving the sustainability of UHPC. Now,
CRC and SIFCON exhibit excellent mechanical properties UHPC can be prepared with a relatively low material cost
and durability. However, due to the lack of effective super- and energy consumption. Supplementary cementitious ma-
plasticizers, they both have workability problems. So they terials, such as fly ash (FA), slag and silica fume (SF), can
are very difficult to be used for in-situ concrete construc- be used for replacing part of cement, which could reduce
Gu C P, et al. Sci China Tech Sci April (2015) Vol.58 No.4 589
the usage of cement. Furthermore, UHPC can be prepared be maximized by optimizing the particle size distribution of
with normal temperature curing now. Because of the emer- raw materials. Thus, smaller particles could fill the voids
gence of environmental friendly UHPC with relatively low between the bigger particles. Due to the low w/b and the
cost, the applications of UHPC are increasing constantly. pozzolanic reaction of supplementary cementitious materi-
From the 2000s, several countries have engaged in the ap- als (especially SF), UHPC could attain a very dense micro-
plication of UHPC. In France, a lot of outstanding structures structure and thus excellent performance. The addition of
(bridges, facades, slabs…) have been built with UHPC [6]. steel fibers helps to improve both the tensile strength and
UHPC also has growing applications in maintenance and ductility of UHPC.
development of US highway infrastructures [7]. In Australia, Tuan [14] compared the composition and properties of
a significant activity was developed based on the realization normal strength concrete (NSC), high strength concrete
of bridge structures [8]. In Switzerland, UHPC has been (HSC) and UHPC. Details are shown in Table 1. Normally,
mostly applied to in-situ reinforcement of structures [9]. UHPC has higher cement content, lower w/b and no coarse
UHPC bridges have been built in the Netherlands and Spain aggregate. Depending on the specific application, coarse
[10,11]. Prototype bridges and structures have been built in aggregates are sometimes used, as well as a variety of
Canada, Germany, Austria, Japan and Korea [7]. In China, chemical and mineral admixtures.
UHPC has been used for producing cover plates, which are The initial cost of UHPC far exceeds that of conventional
designed for covering the cable trenches along the high concrete. Consequently, great efforts have been made on
speed railways [12]. With the growing applications of minimizing material costs without sacrificing the beneficial
UHPC, a wide range of different formulations are available properties of UHPC. Through careful selection of the raw
and can be adjusted to meet the individual needs of increas- materials, it was possible to produce UHPC with outstand-
ing number of different applications [13]. Delightful ing performance and moderate material costs. The possibil-
achievements have been made on the application of UHPC,
ity of replacing SF in UHPC with metakaolin, pulverized
but there are still barriers that impede the wider applications
FA, limestone microfiller, siliceous microfiller, micronized
of UHPC. Further discussions on the barriers will be given
phonolith, or rice husk ash (RHA) has been investigated
in Section 7.
[14–16]. Several researches have shown that fine ground
quartz sand could be replaced by well-graded natural sand
3 Composition and microstructure of UHPC with a maximum size of 2–8 mm [12,17]. With the growing
concern on the concept of sustainability, supplementary
cementitious materials, such as FA and slag, have been
3.1 Composition
widely used to partially replace cement when preparing
After several decades of development, one of the most pop- UHPC. The volume fraction of steel fiber also could be re-
ular approaches to prepare UHPC is: High quality cement + duced if UHPC is reinforced with conventional steel rebar.
supplementary cementitious materials + low w/c or water to It can be said that, a relatively low cost is possible now to
binder ratio (w/b) + fine aggregates + superplasticizer + prepare UHPC. The preparation of UHPC is becoming more
steel (or organic) fibers. The key principle is to improve the economical and sustainable.
homogeneity and packing density of the mixture. The ho-
mogeneity of the mixture could be improved by eliminating 3.2 Microstructure
the coarse aggregates, which results in a more uniform
stress distribution when loaded. The packing density could From material science point of view, the macro properties
Table 1 Examples of composition and properties of NSC, HSC and UHPC [14]
of a material are determined by its microstructure, which is even none [19]. Figure 3(a) shows ITZ between the paste
the same case for UHPC. The outstanding mechanical and sand particles in UHPC. It seems that ITZ almost dis-
properties and durability of UHPC result from its very appears. Nanoindentation tests also showed that ITZ didn’t
dense and compact microstructure. exist in UHPC [19]. Figure 3(b) shows the bond between
The microstructure of UHPC could be observed by the steel fiber and the UHPC matrix. It can be seen that the
Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Figure 1 is a steel fiber is closely wrapped up by the matrix, showing a
Backscattering Scanning Electron (BSE) image of a UHPC strong bond between them. Hence, the fibers could effec-
paste containing FA and SF. Because of the low w/b, large tively bridge the cracks and thus improve the ductility of
amount of unreacted cement and FA particles can be seen in UHPC.
the image. No visible capillary pores and cracks can be In addition, it is worthy to be noted that there is large
found, as well as the portlandite (Ca(OH)2) crystals. amount of ultra-high density CSH (UHD-CSH) [20], which
Another aspect of the microstructure of UHPC is the pore owns higher density than normal hydration products (high
structure, i.e. pore size distribution and the total porosity. density CSH and low density CSH), in the UHPC paste.
Figure 2 shows the pore size distribution of UHPC, HPC With the help of nanoindentation, Vandamme [20] con-
and NC, determined by mercury intrusion porosimetry ducted a series of experiments on nano-mechanical proper-
(MIP). It can be seen that, compared with HPC and NC, the ties of cement-based materials with different w/c. When the
main features of UHPC pore structure are the absence of w/c is very low, for example, w/c=0.15, the percentage of
capillary pores and lower total porosity. The fine pore UHD-CSH in the hydration products is 97%. Almost all the
structure is the reason why UHPC has a particularly high hydration products are UHD-CSH and the rest are the high
resistance to chloride penetration, carbonation and freez- density CSH. The great amount of UHD-CSH is another
ing-thawing attack. reason that UHPC exhibits excellent mechanical properties
Another difference of NC and UHPC in microstructure and durability. However, the nature of UHD-CSH has not
lies in the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) between the paste been clearly revealed. One widely accepted viewpoint is
and aggregate particles. The thickness of ITZ in NC is nor- that UHD-CSH is a nanocomposite of CSH and nano-
mally in the range of 20 to 100 µm. While, the thickness of
this zone in UHPC is found to be very small (2 µm) [14], or
(a)
Figure 1 Microstructure of UHPC paste containing FA and SF, w/b=0.18,
28d.
(b)
Figure 3 (a) ITZ between sand and paste in UHPC; (b) ITZ between steel
Figure 2 Pore size distribution of UHPC, HPC and NC [18]. fiber and paste in UHPC, w/b=0.18, 28d.
Gu C P, et al. Sci China Tech Sci April (2015) Vol.58 No.4 591
Ca(OH)2 [21].
4.4 Shrinkage
ternal curing, which is defined by the American Concrete the developing vapor pressure with the volume gained by
Institute (ACI) as "supplying water throughout a freshly fiber melting, and finally releasing it.
placed cementitious mixture using reservoirs, via pre-wetted
lightweight aggregates, that readily release water as needed 4.8 Fatigue behavior
for hydration or to replace moisture lost through evapora-
tion or self-desiccation". Lightweight aggregate is the most Only a few studies were performed on the fatigue behavior
common material used as a water reservoir. However, the of UHPC. This is due to the fact that this material still only
size of the lightweight aggregate makes it unsuitable to be has a few applications and research in this field is still in
used in UHPC. Researchers throughout the world are also progress. The results of the studies showed that UHPC had
investigating the possibility of using superabsorbent poly- a good resistance to fatigue [7]. It can be said that, in con-
mers (SAP) [26] and RHA [14,27] as internal curing agent. trast to other high strength materials, the high strength of
RHA is considered as a very promising material to act as UHPC does not leads to disadvantages with regard to the
internal curing agent in UHPC because of its porous struc- fatigue.
ture and pozzolanic reactivity [14].
The development of drying shrinkage of UHPC is similar 4.9 Impact resistance
as HPC. Due to the low w/b, high density of the matrix and
the presence of fibers, the amount of drying shrinkage of Thanks to the presence of fibers and the strong bond be-
UHPC is lower compared with that of HPC. For heat treated tween the fibers and matrix, UHPC has a much higher im-
UHPC, dry shrinkage can be neglected after the end of heat pact resistance than NC or even normal fiber reinforced
treatment. concrete (FRC). So UHPC has the potential to be used for
military structures to resist the bomb blast or penetration.
4.5 Creep Bindiganvile [31] compared the impact resistance of UHPC
with that of conventional FRC. Under impact loading,
The creep of UHPC is generally less than that of NC and UHPC was approximately twice stronger than conventional
HPC. The creep of concrete can be expressed as a creep FRC and dissipated three to four times of energy. Lai [32]
coefficient (=creep strain/initial strain) or specific creep studied the bullet penetration resistance of UHPC. The re-
(=creep strain/applied stress). The creep coefficient of sults showed that UHPC with coarse aggregates (Max. 16
UHPC ranges from 0.3 to 0.85, and the specific creep rang- mm) and more steel fibers had higher resistance to the bullet
es from 5 to 47 µm/m/MPa [7]. For comparison, the specific penetration.
creep for NC is in the range of 35 to 140 µm/m/MPa.
5 Durability of UHPC
4.6 Thermal properties
The thermal expansion coefficients of UHPC measured by Apart from being far stronger than NC, UHPC also has out-
various researchers are in the range of 10 to 15 µm/m/K. In standing qualities in terms of durability. The durability of
the French Interim Recommendations [1], 10.4–11.8 µm/m/K concrete is determined to a great extent by its microstruc-
have been recorded as the general value. This value is in the ture, especially pore structure. For NC, transportation of
same range as for normal concrete of about 11.0 µm/m/K. water and harmful agent, as chloride and sulfate, mainly
occurs in capillary pores. While, UHPC is considered to be
4.7 Fire resistance a capillary pores free material. Meanwhile, its total porosity
is much lower than that of NC. For these reasons, UHPC
Like all concrete, UHPC is non-combustible. However, due has been considered as a material with outstanding re-
to the extreme dense microstructure, UHPC is more suscep- sistance to harmful agents. In the past, most of the durability
tible to explosive spalling during heating, which is the most researches on UHPC were conducted under a single envi-
dangerous damage mechanism for the structures built with ronmental effect, such as chloride ingress, carbonation and
this material [28]. The spalling of UHPC is caused mainly freeze-thaw cycles. In recent years, durability of UHPC
by pore pressure due to the dehydration of hydrates and under coupled mechanical and environmental effects and in
thermal stresses [29]. A well-known solution to improve the field also has been studied due to the increasing applications
fire resistance of UHPC is to include polypropylene fibers of UHPC under complicated service conditions.
in the UHPC mixture [18,28,30]. Although experience
shows the effectiveness, efficiency mechanisms behind this 5.1 Durability of UHPC under single environmental
are still under investigation. A widely accepted explanation load
is the interconnected pore system building-up at tempera-
tures of about 160°C when polypropylene fibers melt. The Table 2 shows the comparison of the mechanical properties
interconnected pore system is then capable of distributing and durability of RPC, HPC and NC [33]. For instance, the
Gu C P, et al. Sci China Tech Sci April (2015) Vol.58 No.4 593
chloride diffusion coefficient of RPC200 is 1/30 of HPC showed almost no change. This indicated that UHPC didn’t
and 1/55 of NC. The other properties of RPC200 are also degrade under the aforementioned coupled effects in one
much better than those of NC and HPC. year.
Recent study performed by Kono [34] showed that, after Andrade [40] studied the long-term carbonation re-
2.5 years immersion in artificial sea water, the chloride sistance of the reinforced UHPC under permanent load. A
penetration depth in UHPC was only around 2 mm and the constant load of four-point bending was applied to the beam
apparent diffusion coefficient was determined to be specimens and visible cracks with width of 0.05 and 0.1 mm
3.377×1014 m2/s. Pierard [35] studied the durability of dif- were induced. The specimens were 16 years old and have
ferent types of UHPC. The accelerated carbonation tests, been held indoors and outdoors (at open air exposed to the
accelerated chloride diffusion tests, freeze-thaw perfor- climatic events). The corrosion rate of the reinforcing bars
mance tests, alkali-silica reaction tests, sulphate attack tests and the carbonation depth were measured. The results
and sulphuric acid tests were performed on UHPC. All the showed that the reinforcing bars remained in passive state
results showed that UHPC exhibited extremely good dura- after 16 years exposure, in spite of the cracks induced by the
bility under the experimental conditions. constant bending load. The carbonation depth in UHPC was
less than 1 mm, which shows that UHPC has great carbona-
5.2 Durability of UHPC under coupled effect of me- tion resistance.
chanical and environmental loads
5.3 Field tests on the durability of UHPC
Realizing that the UHPC structures are always designed to
stand severe coupled effects of mechanical and environ- Since UHPC was invented, it has been used for some struc-
mental loads, experimental studies on the durability of tures. Feedbacks on the durability of UHPC in some of
UHPC under these conditions were also conducted. these structures have been received.
The permeability of UHPC after tension to different ex- Sakata-Mirai Footbridge [34] is the first bridge con-
tents was studied by Charron [36,37]. Results indicated that structed with UHPC in Japan in 2002. This bridge is built to
the permeability of UHPC rose up to three orders of magni- span the Noota River that flows through the urban area of
tude (1.8×1012 to 2.9×109 m/s) when the residual defor- Sakata City. The location is about 3.4 km from the Japan
mation after tension increased from 0.05% to 0.88%. It Sea coastal line, so this footbridge is exposed to severe cor-
meant that the cracks had significant impacts on the perme- rosive environment. After more than 10 years exposure,
ability of UHPC. It is foreseeable that cracks would show chloride profiles in UHPC of the bridge were tested. The
great negative influence on the resistance to chloride pene- results showed that the chloride penetration depth was less
tration, carbonation and sulfate ingress. Compared to the than 1 mm in the UHPC samples, and the chloride diffusion
permeability of NC (4.8×1011 m/s) [38], the permeability coefficient was around 1×1015 m2/s. The mechanical prop-
of sound UHPC is 1–2 orders of magnitude lower. The per- erties of field UHPC samples were also tested. The com-
meability of UHPC with a residual deformation of 0.33% is pressive strength of the samples increased due to the ongo-
close to that of NC. In general, the permeability of UHPC is ing hydration of cement in 10 years. The flexural strength
much lower than that of NC, but the cracks, which originate was almost the same as 10 years ago. So, in conclusion, this
from the mechanical load, influence the permeability of 10 years old UHPC footbridge still maintains good condi-
UHPC remarkably. tion even against severer environments.
Parant [39] tracked the change of mechanical properties UHPC bridges at Bourg-les-Valence in Southeastern
of UHPC under coupled effects of flexural load, chloride France are the oldest UHPC road bridges in the world [41].
penetration and wetting-drying cycles. The stress ratio of They were completed in 2001 and the decks were made of
the flexural load was 50%, the concentration of the NaCl BSI/Ceracem® concrete with compressive strength of 180
solution was 5 g/l, the wetting-drying cycles were carried MPa. After 12 years of service, cores were drilled from one
out with one day wet and six days dry, and the test period of the bridge spans for long-term performance investigation.
lasted one year. After the experiment, no matter the flexural Mechanical and durability characteristics were measured
strength or stiffness, the mechanical properties of UHPC with the drilled specimens. Free chloride content was de-
594 Gu C P, et al. Sci China Tech Sci April (2015) Vol.58 No.4
6.2 Buildings
In addition to the applications on bridges, the field of build- Figure 8 Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la Creationin, Paris, France.
Gu C P, et al. Sci China Tech Sci April (2015) Vol.58 No.4 595
countries [70]. But in some countries like France, Japan, tremely dense micro-structure, and normally capillary pores
China, German and Switzerland, due to a growing interest do not exist in UHPC. The mechanical properties and dura-
on UHPC, standardization efforts have been made. For ex- bility of UHPC are both much better than HPC and NC.
ample, in China, a draft of national standard on RPC has When using UHPC, attentions have to be paid to the autog-
been posted on internet, asking for comments. With the enous shrinkage and fire resistance of this material.
growing applications of UHPC, more experience and UHPC is a high-tech material following new technologi-
knowledge could be gathered, and thus recommendations or cal rules regarding its composition, its production and the
standards on design and construction with UHPC could be mechanical behavior, as well as regarding design and con-
further developed. struction of structures. After several decades of develop-
The design and construction methods for the UHPC ment, a great accumulation of knowledge about the material
structures are different from the traditional provisions for and the design and construction of the UHPC structures
conventional reinforced concrete. To date, skilled architects, have been gained. Technical recommendations have been
engineers and experts in the UHPC design and construction published in France, Japan, China, Germany and Switzer-
are still very few. Only a few engineering offices, compa- land. Some applications in North America, Europe and Asia
nies and authorities have been involved in working with have proven that UHPC technology shows great benefits
UHPC. Since UHPC has a wide application prospect, regarding the sustainability and service life, which testifies
skilled teams which are familiar with UHPC technology and that applications of UHPC could be extended to wider fields.
specific design issues should be developed [6]. Nevertheless, this material has still not yet widely accepted.
At present, only around 5 suppliers could provide UHPC Since the initial cost of UHPC is high, an optimization ef-
products to the market. They are mainly distributed in Eu- fort is necessary to reduce the production cost. In order to
rope and North America. In some country, like China, make use of the large potential of UHPC, the industry
UHPC products are not commercialized. Wide application should cooperate in a much better way with academic insti-
of any construction material requires that the material can tutes, governments, structure owners and end-users. The
be widely available for purchase by both private and public knowledge and practical experiences should be much ex-
organizations [43]. Without readily available UHPC, the changed between those parties. Standards and recommenda-
promising applications of this material will never be real- tions on design and construction of the UHPC structures
ized. must be established. Designers, architects and engineers
As to the scientific researches on UHPC, the research should be more open to this new material and technology.
trend on UHPC now is related to nanotechnology. Experi- In addition, further scientific researches on UHPC and
mental explorations have been performed to modify the UHPC structures also must be continued. With all these
properties of UHPC by using nano-particles (e.g. nano-SiO2) efforts, UHPC may turn into a widespread ‘regular’ tech-
and nano-fibers (e.g. carbon nano-tubes). Moreover, some nology, thus resulting in more sustainable and durable in-
researchers have tried to study the structure of hydration frastructures.
products in UHPC at nano-scale [71]. Nanotechnology
might be a solution to the drawbacks of UHPC, such as
This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of Chi-
shrinkage problem, and thus could improve the general na (“973” Project) (Grant No. 2009CB623203), National Natural Science
performance of UHPC. So further studies on this subject Foundation of China (Grant No.51378113) and Fundamental Research
should be proceeded. Besides all the researches related to Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 3212002206). The work was
the material, the performance of the UHPC structural ele- carried out in the Microlab, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences,
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
ments also should be studied. The shortage of the infor-
mation on the behavior of the UHPC structural elements is
one of the main reasons that hold back the rapid growth of 1 French Association for Civil Engineering, Ultra high performance fi-
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