UHPC for People blog

Interesting newsletters about advanced concretes

Monday, 14 September 2020 by Esteban Camacho

Reshealience project prototype made by RDC and PREFFOR

Today I would like to introduce the Newsletters of the European Projects (H2020) where we are involved. As I mentioned in previous posts, RDC is a company that has developed a distinctive strength thanks to continuous and close-to-market innovation. To do it in a health way and with good character, we decided to do it as a balanced person organizes its life: Enjoying both the time alone and the social relations. Thus, part of our R&D is internal, and the other part is in cooperation with other partners. Today’s blog talks about the latter.

Published in RDC: The Art of Innovation

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The reasons for using UHPC in different sectors

Thursday, 21 May 2020 by Esteban Camacho

Durability lightness and aesthetics in UHPC applications

If you work with UHPC, possibly you are used to explain what it is. It is highly likely that your words do not vary a lot whether your audience is a potential client, your neighbour or even your grandma (which answers you asking why you didn’t study medicine). In most of the cases, the sentence

Published in Learning UHPC, Market UHPC applications

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Cost of UHPC

Thursday, 16 April 2020 by Esteban Camacho

The first time I heard about UHPC was in 2008. I had an informal meeting with Professor Pedro Serna, and I agreed with him to begin a research in this topic to perform my Final Degree Project. I started to read about it with a lot of interest, using mostly the Proceedings of the International

Published in Learning UHPC, UHPC Costs

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The European Project SMARTINCS offers 8 full-time Early Stage Researcher (ESR) positions

Tuesday, 07 January 2020 by RDC

The European Project SMARTINCS funded by the European Commission (H2020) invites applications for 8 full-time Early Stage Researcher (ESR) positions, with a duration of 36 months (M), starting at 1/06/2020. The limit for the application is January 30th, 2020. The applicants should have a master’s degree (or equivalent) in Bio / Chemical / Civil /

Published in RDC News

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Formex® floating platforms as a useful infrastructure for the development of the Blue Growth potential

Sunday, 10 March 2019 by Esteban Camacho

In 2016, RDC launched to the market a patented solution of high-durability floating platforms made with advanced concretes. Up to the moment, there are already more than 3.000 m2 floated for shellfish farming at three different regions (Cantabric sea, Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea). The market penetration of this product proves that it is an

Published in RDC News

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New project (AVI): UHPFRC with new fiber technologies and its application in ultralight slabs

Monday, 05 November 2018 by RDC

Research & Development Concretes has won the award for the project “UHPFRC With New Fiber Technology and Its Application in Ultralight Slabs” within the framework of the first edition of the call for “Complementary Actions to Boost and Strengthen Innovation” by the Agencia Valenciana de la Innovación (Valencian Innovation Agency [AVI]). The main objective of

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Tensile behaviour of UHPC (III). Into FRC tensile response

Wednesday, 28 March 2018 by Juan Ángel López

In the third post of “Tensile behaviour of UHPC” we start talking about UHPC..., finally :) Don't miss the two previous posts dealing with tensile properties of plain concrete and some important properties of it, such as scale-effect and brittleness. In this post we talk about (i) the reason underlying the use of fibres in concrete; (ii) the mechanical response of fibre-reinforced concretes and how it differs from plain concrete; and (iii) we show a typical constitutive behaviour of UHPC. Enjoy it !!

Concreto de Ultra Alto Rendimiento UHPC

Published in Learning UHPC

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H2020 | RIA | Towards the Ultra High Durability concept – ReSHEALience Project

Thursday, 15 March 2018 by Juan Ángel López

ReSHEALience Project started with the purpose of increasing service life by at least 30% and decreasing maintenance costs by at least 50% of those structures exposed to aggressive environmental conditions, such as chemical attacks or chloride induced corrosion, throghout a thorough research and innovation 4-years project focused on four main areas: (i) improvement of material durability properties; (ii) improvement of design criteria in service life conditions and prediction of structure lifespan; (iii) full scale monitored prototypes to check technical feasibility; and (iv) evaluation of business opportunities to check economical, social and environmental feasibility. We want longer-lasting structures with lower maintenance costs !! We believe concrete is the best choice !! And we want them to be sustainable and competitive !! Does it a lot to ask? Achieving such ambitious goals will require the joint effort, commitment and determination of 14 different partners (companies, universities and research institutions) for the development and realisation of what we have called: Ultra High Durability Concrete (UHDC). It is not just the development of an hiper-ultra-mega-super concrete, but a lot more than that. So, what does this new concept mean?

Published in RDC: The Art of Innovation, ReSHEAlience - H2020

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What we have to know about fibres in UHPC

Tuesday, 27 February 2018 by Juan Ángel López

Fibres may be considered the most important ingredient in the recipe for UHPC due economical, ductility and durability reasons. ECONOMICAL. An analysis of the raw materials required to produced UHPC shows that approximately 60-80% of the total price is due to fibres in a common UHPC with 2% in volume of steel fibres. This ratio can be much higher if either stainless steel fibres or larger fibre amount is used. DUCTILITY. On the other hand, it is unsafe to design UHPC structures without fibres since a minimum material ductility is required !! Fibres provide that ductility when using properly. DURABILITY. Besides, fibres help control cracking, which also contributes to increase the lifespan of structures. That is why is completely necessary to know some key points about its use. ¿Interested?

Published in Learning UHPC

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Tensile behaviour of UHPC (II). Softening behaviour and scale-effect in plain concrete

Tuesday, 23 January 2018 by Juan Ángel López

In the first post of "Tensile behaviour of UHPC" we defined the uniaxial tensile behaviour of plain concrete using both a stress-strain relationship up to maximum load and a stress-crack opening relationship from this point onwards up to a maximum crack width. We explained that one of the main consequences of the ability of concrete to transfer a "stitched force" between the two planes of a crack according to the distance between them (crack opening) is the fact that strength depends on specimen size, what is commonly called scale-effect. It could have been a minor issue for science if not for the fact that linear elastic theory couldn't predict that. In this post we are going to explain (i) the concept of equivalent flexural strength; (ii) the nature of the scale-effect phenomenom, (iii) the way we can easily consider the scale-effect by correcting softening stress-strain behaviour according to structure depth and (iv) some notions about brittleness. Warning 1: We strongly recommend to read post (I) before digging into this one !! Warning 2: It may be kind of tedious to read if you don’t have basic knowledge on concrete design !! Let's get started !!