Concrete with 135 MPa!!
We all would have studied or experimented with concrete of strength 25-45 Mpa at maximum but have you ever imagined that we can increase the compressive strength of concrete to 135 kn/mm2, Yes it is possible but at high price.
The researchers and students from Montana state university have come up with the new recipe for this concrete which is made by adding fine particles of silica fume — a byproduct of making silicon for solar panels and other things — and fly ash, which is a byproduct of coal-fired power plants. By adding these substances large voids surrounding the larger particles in the concrete gets filled thus creating a dense mixture.
This ultra-high performance concrete was tested in a lab at Montana State University, researchers used a massive hydraulic pistons to crush samples of concrete in order to determine the material’s strength.
The advantage of this material is its strength and rapid cure time which is around 24 hours or as little as a day, compared to upwards of a week for regular concrete, literally open up new construction possibilities that could save lots of time, according to Matthew Needham, the department’s materials testing supervisor. Adding to these benefits it also consumes less water than normal concrete.
This material will be used to join together pre-fabricated panels of regular concrete to form the driving surface of bridges, reducing construction time, Needham said. In the long run, the material’s durability could significantly reduce maintenance costs, he added.
But widespread use has been prohibited by the high cost — as much as 20 times that of regular concrete — that companies charge for the product.
But have you ever wondered "why silica fume increases the compressive strength of the concrete". read this Article.
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