Mechanical Properties and Durability of Ultra-High Performance Concrete Incorporating Coarse Aggregate

Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) incorporating coarse aggregate was prepared with common raw materials. Fresh concrete had excellent good workability with slump of 265 mm and slump spread of 673 mm. Compressive strength of UHPC at 56 d reached 150 MPa. However, UHPC exhibited high brittleness in terms of spalling failure which occurred during compression loading.The ratio of splitting tensile strength to compressive strength of about 1/18 and the ratio of flexural strength to compressive strength of about 1/14 at 56 d were also associated with the brittleness of UHPC in this research. Mineral admixtures and fluidity of fresh concrete influenced compressive strength of UHPC significantly. Moreover, UHPC had excellent permeation-related durability but considerable shrinkage. Autogenous shrinkage of UHPC was less than half of free shrinkage, for which the reason is unknown and needs further research.