The tensile response of ultra-high performance fibre-reinforced composites (UHPFRC) is decisive in many applications and depends on the steel fibre content and orientation. These vary troughout the structural element and may differ from those in the laboratory specimens used to characterize the material behaviour. This work presents the developments on a non-destructive test method based on the measurement of the magnetic inductance, substantiating its use for the determination of the fibre content and orientation in thin UHPFRC elements and allowing the estimation of the directionally dependent post-cracking tensile strength of the material in the structure. Starting from a probabilistic description of the fibre orientation, an existing physical model of the magnetic circuit composed of a U-shaped inductor and the composite is generalized and is used to derive the relations between the magnetic inductance measurements, the fibre volumetric fraction and the fibre orientation factor. A second-order tensor approximation of the relative magnetic permeability of the composite is proposed to determine the in-plane fibre orientation factor along any direction based on any three non-collinear measurements. Experimental evidence is presented supporting the theoretical developments. The factors that may affect the measurements are experimentally quantified. The paper concludes with an application example.

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The current work provides an integrated analysis of autogenous shrinkage, isothermal calorimetry, and modulus of elasticity measurement through ambient response method (EMM-ARM), to characterise the hardening behaviour of a non-proprietary and more eco-friendly ultra-high performance fibre reinforced cementitious composite (UHPFRC). Isothermal calorimetry revealed that induction period ends at 3 h, and the rapid evolution of hydration heat occurs up to 9 h. Then, the hydration reaction still undergoes but at a very slow rate. The autogenous shrinkage exhibited a strong increase, particularly in the first 6 h, after which a dramatic reduction in the slope of the curves occurred, corroborating with the heat of hydration measurements. The modulus of elasticity evolution pattern revealed a typical cementitious material S-shaped curve, with a strong evolution in the first 8 h and reached 37 GPa at 7 days. As the current study perceives, UHPC/UHPFRC-3 % MOE evolution mainly occurs at very early ages. Thus, using EMM-ARM method for evaluating stiffness-related properties since casting age of UHPC/UHPFRC is of utmost importance to take advantage of the remarkable properties of such advanced material with no waste of time and resources. Furthermore, the UHPFRC developed with a lower amount of cement and silica fume decreases the heat of hydration, shrinkage, and reduced costs and ecological footprint without significantly impairing the MOE, compared to other non-proprietary blended UHPC/UHPFRC mixtures.

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Strengthening existing reinforced concrete (RC) flat slabs by casting a thin layer of ultra-high performance fibre-reinforced cementitious composite (UHPFRC) over the top surface constitutes an efficient solution for significant durability and flexural capacity enhancements. Previous research has shown that also the punching shear capacity can be substantially increased. However, the existing experimental evidence is still limited and does not allow a systematic evaluation of the influence of the governing parameters. In the present work, eight slabs without transverse reinforcement were tested up to punching shear failure. The following parameters were studied: the contribution of the UHPFRC overlay with and without reinforcement bars, the shape of the column (square or rectangular), the effect of the reinforcement ratio in the existing slab, the eccentricity of the punching force and the material of the strengthening layer (UHPFRC or ordinary RC). The height of the RC substrate and UHPFRC layer thickness were kept constant at 180 mm and 40 mm, respectively. The results confirm the significant contribution of the UHPFRC layer to the punching shear strength. The experimental failure loads are compared to the predictions provided by a composite failure criterion based on the Critical Shear Crack Theory and taking into account the contribution of the UHPFRC layer. Good agreement was obtained with the model being capable of reproducing the effect of all the studied variables.

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The suitability of a recently developed ultra-high performance fibre reinforced cementitious composite (UHPFRC) incorporating Spent Equilibrium Catalyst, ECat, for structural applications is investigated through a systematic multi-level investigation across micro, meso and composite levels. Scanning electron microscopy, isothermal calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, and mercury intrusion porosimetry tests were performed to evaluate the microstructure of the composite. At the meso-level, the mechanical properties of fibre to matrix ITZ were characterised by single fibre pullout tests on fibres embedded with various fibre orientation angles. At the composite level, specimens with 3% fibre content and different fibre orientation profiles were prepared to determine uniaxial tensile behaviour. The relation between the tensile fracture parameters and fibre structure parameter was assessed. In each level, the results are compared to a conventional ternary UHPFRC mixture and point towards the suitability of the newly developed mixture for structural applications.

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The current paper analyses the mechanical and fracture behaviour of a High-Performance Fibre Reinforced Concrete (HPFRC). An HPFRC was developed in a previous stage aiming to simultaneously, maximise aggregates content, achieve a compressive strength of 90–120 MPa and maintaining self-compactability (SF1+VS2). The benefits of fibres hybridisation (using fibres with lengths of 13, 35 and 60 mm) on flexural strength are investigated using the wedge-splitting test, in order to achieve the highest performance while keeping a relatively low fibre content. The final selected mixture was characterised in terms of workability, compressive strength and modulus of elasticity. Six notched prismatic specimens were subjected to three-point bending tests, according to EN 14651, for classification according to the MC2010. Based on the bending tests data, the simplified linear characteristic tensile stress vs. crack opening displacement relationship of the HPFRC was evaluated according to MC2010 and two other analytical approaches available in the literature.

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Strengthening existing reinforced concrete (RC) beams and slabs using a thin layer of ultra-high performance fibre reinforced cementitious composites (UHPFRC), plain (U) or reinforced (RU) with ordinary steel bars, has been shown to be a very effective way of increasing the flexural capacity in hogging moment regions. However, as the increase in the flexural strength can be very significant, the shear strength of the composite RC-RU or RC-U elements may govern the capacity of the strengthened element and must be conveniently assessed to provide suitable design recommendations. In this regard, the available experimental evidence concerning the shear strength of beams (or one-way shear strength for slabs) is relatively limited. In this work, the results of an experimental campaign are presented where the influence of important parameters was systematically evaluated, namely the reinforcement ratios in the original RC beam and the new UHPFRC layer, the size effect, the thickness of the UHPFRC layer and the sign of the being moment - hogging or sagging - changing the state of stress in the UHPFRC layer from tensile to compressive. The structural behaviour is discussed, and an analytical approach for calculating the shear strength is evaluated.

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This paper provides an overview of the use of the magnetic NDT method for estimating the fibre content, and fibre orientation and efficiency factors in thin UHPFRC elements/layers, along any two orthogonal directions. These parameters are of utmost importance for predicting the post-cracking tensile strength in the directions of interest. After establishing meaningful correlations at the lab-specimen scale, this NDT method can be effectively implemented into quality control protocols at the industrial production scale. The current study critically addresses the influence of key factors associated with using this NDT method in practice and provides recommendations for its efficient implementation.

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In construction, three-dimensional concrete printing technology is an innovative method that opens new design possibilities, reducing the construction time process. The incremental material deposition allows organic shapes without formwork, a mandatory constraint in preparatory phases of conventional complex concrete structures. Nowadays, in three-dimensional printing for construction industry, concrete is the most used material due to its workability, extrudability, and pumpability properties favorable for the printing conditions. Hence, this composition still has a poor sustainable efficiency due to the high levels of Portland Cement. In this research, a reduction of this material was studied and experimented searching for a mortar composition with better ecological footprint, with the objective of decreasing the CO₂ emissions. A bibliometric analysis was made to study the constituents of a mortar for three-dimensional printing and respective dosage. The knowledge acquired in the analysis of the compositions contributed to the development of mortars with lower Portland Cement content. A mechanical extruder was used to check the extrusion capacity of the developed mortars, and the best compositions are presented.

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UHPC is an advanced cementitious material able to meet the current construction industry challenges regarding structural safety and durability. However, new UHPC formulations with limited shrinkage are still being pursued to reduce residual tensile stresses in the UHPFRC layers, for rehabilitation/strengthening applications. This investigation estimates the durability of a non-proprietary UHPC incorporating a by-product originated by the oil refinery industry (ECat), as an internal curing agent. Direct and indirect transport properties measurements as well as the carbonation assessment and evaluation of dimensional resilience to potential deleterious reactions revealed that the new UHPC possesses an excellent durability performance, typical of these materials. These results combined with its self-compacting ability, low autogenous shrinkage and high compressive strength confirm the belief in the role of this new UHPC towards a high-tech construction.

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This paper presents and discusses experimental results on the tensile mechanical performance of a newly developed ultra-high performance cementitious material, UHPC, incorporating spent equilibrium catalyst (ECat), a waste generated by the oil refinery industry, as a supplementary cementitious material. The results are compared to a previously developed conventional UHPC. The influence of ECat on the heat of hydration in UHPC is evaluated by isothermal calorimeter under a constant temperature of 20 ℃. To determine the evolution of the tensile behaviour with time, a series of uniaxial tensile tests are performed on the specimens at different ages, i.e. 1, 3, 7, 28 and 91 days after casting. Afterwards, the fibre to matrix interfacial bond properties were characterized by executing a series of single fibre pullout tests at the age of 28 days on the steel fibres embedded in UHPCs with 0°, 30° and 60° orientation angles. The results confirmed the adequate performance of the new developed UHPC for the structural application.

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Fibre-reinforced cementitious materials represent one of the most significant developments in the field of concrete technology of the last decades. The improved performance of this new class of materials (in terms of workability, compressive strength, flexural/tensile behaviour and/or durability) allows rethinking several of the existing structural solutions. This paper describes research on high-performance fibre reinforced concrete (HPFRC) to be used at the slab-column connection zones of flat slabs, in order to improve its punching shear resistance. Design of Experiments (DoE) approach was used to design HPFRC paste and aggregate particle phases. As such, a central composite design was carried out to mathematically model the influence of mixture parameters and their coupled effects on deformability, viscosity and compressive strength. After that, a numerical optimization technique was applied to the derived models to select the best mixture, which simultaneously, maximizes aggregates content and allows achieving a compressive strength of 90–120 MPa, while maintaining self-compactability (SF1 + VS2), incorporating 1% steel fibres content.

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The high cost of UHPFRC is a limitation on the practical application in real construction projects. However, a very competitive UHPFRC approach is the hybrid structural elements, where thin layers of UHPFRC are employed to rehabilitate/strengthen damage cover concrete. New layers subjected to harsh conditions (loads and/or environmental) can eventually crack under service conditions, changing the local transport properties and thus, a faster ingress of detrimental substances occur, such as chlorides ions. Most of the studies on chloride penetration in UHPFRC have focused on determining the transport properties of sound, non-cracked specimens. Thus, an experimental campaign was carried out to assess chloride ingress in loaded and/or cracked UHPFRC and the effect of such ions on mechanical performance. Typical service cracks patterns were imposed on UHPFRC specimens and then exposed to wetting–drying cycles in a chloride solution. After 1-year chloride exposure, UHPFRC specimens were in good condition with no significant losses in flexural strength; however, stiffness might be affected. The chloride contents up to 20 mm depth were superior to the European standards critical chloride content. A minimum cover depth of 20 mm of new UHPFRC is recommended to protect a concrete substrate in hybrid structures for exposure classes XS3.@en

Given the rising societal pressure towards sustainable waste management and resource efficiency, in a more circular economy, an increased use and diversification of supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) will be necessary to achieve the CO₂ mitigation goals. The current study addresses the development of self-compacting concrete, replacing part of the cement (the primary source of CO₂ emissions) by metakaolin and wastes derived from two industrial sectors operating in the “Galicia–North of Portugal Euroregion”: wood manufacturing and natural stone quarrying. A study was carried out at the mortar level to investigate the effect of the mix design variables on several engineering properties of the self-compacting concrete. Statistically designed experiments reveal that an increase in water/powder volume ratio has a dominant effect on the fresh state properties, whereas the water/cement weight ratio has a dominant effect on the hardened state properties. A like-for-like comparison of the proposed quaternary blends and previously studied binary/ternary blends indicates that these mixtures exhibit improved self-compacting ability, greater compressive strength, and can offer interesting opportunities to reduce the unit cost and environmental impact of self-compacting concrete per m³. Four different mortar mixtures were optimised to achieve excellent self-compacting ability yet with distinct compressive strength levels at 28 days (65, 70, 75, and 80 MPa). A single measure of the material efficiency is proposed herein to reflect the engineering properties improvement (workability, compressive strength, and durability) over its economic (unit cost) and environmental impact.

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UHPFRC has become one of the most promising cement-based materials for the next generation of infrastructures because of its good workability, outstanding mechanical properties, and excellent durability. A promising field of application is the rehabilitation and/or strengthening of existing reinforced concrete structures, in which a new layer of UHPFRC replaces the deteriorated concrete (cracked, carbonated, chloride attack, etc.). The combination of the UHPFRC as protective layer, which can be reinforced, provides a simple and efficient way of increasing the durability (extending the service life), the stiffness and structural resistance capacity while keeping compact cross sections. A study was carried out to test a non-proprietary UHPC mix containing equilibrium catalyst to determine whether this new mix is a viable option for rehabilitation/strengthening applications. Several mechanical properties and durability were assessed, such as early age E-modulus development and autogenous shrinkage, compressive strength evolution in time, uniaxial tensile strength, water absorption by capillarity, chloride ion penetration, alkali-silica reactivity and sulphates attack resistance. Test results show that new UHPC developed present equivalent performance to other UHPCs cured under normal curing conditions.

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The tensile behaviour of Ultra-High Performance Fibre Reinforced Cementitious Composites (UHPFRC) is decisive in many structural applications. A non-destructive test method (NDT) based on the magnetic properties of the steel fibres is used to determine suitable fibre content and orientation parameters. These parameters are employed in a constitutive model providing the corresponding directional dependent tensile response, which varies throughout the structure. This information is then provided to the mechanical model of the beams used to simulate the four point bending tests (FPBT). The resulting numerical F-d curves and crack patterns are confronted with those from experimental tests with a good match being generally attained.

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A simple model is proposed to predict the uniaxial tensile behaviour of ultra-high performance fibre-reinforced cementitious composites (UHPFRC) based on a meso-level description of the involved mechanics. The model relies on quantifiable material properties of the both matrix and fibres, on basic information concerning the fibre structure (such as fibre volumetric fraction, fibre orientation and geometry) and on three model parameters. Pullout tests on short fibres embedded in ultra-high performance cementitious matrix with different orientation angles and embedded lengths were developed for estimating the representative value of the average fibre-to-matrix bond-strength to be adopted, as well as for defining the fibre efficiency function describing the effects of fibre orientation on the pullout force. The model performance is validated against a series of uniaxial tensile tests on UHPFRC specimens covering a wide range of tensile behaviours. It is shown that the tensile response of UHPFRC can be well reproduced both in the hardening and softening stages with a single set of model parameters, and for a significant range of fibre contents and orientation profiles.

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The primary goal of the present paper is to investigate the influence of cracking on water transport by capillary suction of UHPFRC. Prismatic specimens were firstly loaded under four-point bending up to specific crack open displacement (COD). Target COD, under loading, was varied between 200 and 400 μm, in steps of 50 μm. After unloading, a COD recovery was observed with residual COD ranging between 116-334 μm and 75-248 μm for UHPFRC-1.5% and UHPFRC-3.0% specimens, respectively. The crack pattern created was characterised (number of cracks and crack width) before capillarity testing. Sorptivity results of cracked UHPFRC-1.5% and UHPFRC-3% specimens remained in the range of 0.024 to 0.044 mg/(mm².min^0.5), which are about 2 to 4 times higher than the sorptivity results of non-cracked UHPFRC specimens. However, the maximum sorptivity observed on cracked UHPFRC is relatively low as compared to typical sorptivity results found in good quality conventional concrete or engineered cementitious composites (ECC).

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The main goal of the current paper is to optimize ultra-high performance cementitious material (UHPC) mixes incorporating the spent equilibrium catalyst (ECat) to mitigate autogenous shrinkage. Design of experiments approach was used to optimize mixtures targeting different engineering properties, namely, self-compactibility, low early-age shrinkage and cracking risk, improved durability and high mechanical performance. The statistical models established indicated that ECat exhibits a strong positive effect on the autogenous shrinkage mitigation of UHPC attributed to the water absorbed in the porous of ECat particles. The proposed optimal UHPC mixture represents the best compromise between low autogenous shrinkage – 32% of reduction – and high resistivity at 28 days without impairing self-compatibility and compressive strength. This optimal UHPC combined with 3% high-strength steel fibres (l_f/d_f = 65) proved to be comparable to other Ultra High-Performance Fibre Reinforced Composites (UHPFRC), in terms of mechanical behaviour, and more eco-friendly and cost-efficient than UHPCs reported in the literature.

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In the last decades, digital fabrication technologies have stimulated the materialization of complex and customized solutions in several materials. Recently, the integration of these technologies with such a variable and rich material as concrete has prompted an explosion of possible processes and outcomes for digitally fabricated concrete structures. In this context, this paper examines current digital fabrication strategies for concrete, focusing on their applications and in identifying critical issues for their adoption. From this point, through the presentation of two case studies, we propose and discuss Robotic Hot Wire Cutting as a technically and tectonically relevant digital fabrication technology for customized concrete architecture.

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