The Property of High Performance Concrete

2021-07-30

High Performance Concrete (HPC) has been mainly used in the field of civil engineering constructions such as long-span bridges, tunnels, high-rise buildings, highway pavements and more, since HPC is known to make such structures more robust, sturdy, durable and increase their service life.

Concrete is a durable and versatile construction material. It is not only strong and economical, but it also takes the shape of the form in which it is placed, and is aesthetically satisfying. However, experience has shown that concrete is vulnerable to deterioration unless precautionary measures are taken during the design and production stage. The essential features of HPC is that its ingredients and proportions are specifically chosen so as to have particularly appropriate properties such as high strength and low permeability, for the expected use in the structure.

High-strength concrete and high-performance concrete are not the same because strength and performance of concrete are different properties of concrete. High-strength concrete is defined based on its compressive strength at a given age while high-performance concrete is defined based on performance which is high durability, high strength, and high workability.

Compared to normal concrete, HPC is a concrete that has several outstanding property such as compressive strength, high workability, enhanced resistances to chemical or mechanical stresses, lower permeability, durability etc. HPC works out to be economical, even though it’s initial cost is higher than that of conventional concrete. This is because use of HPC in construction enhances the service life of the structure as it will suffer less damage, which would reduce the overall costs.

Features of High Performance Concrete

• Compressive strength > 60 MPa
• Quite brittle but introduction of fibers can improve ductility
• Water binder ratio (0.25-0.35), therefore very little free water
• Densified cement paste
• Low bleeding and plastic shrinkage
• Less capillary porosity is achieved through use of low water to cementitious materials that produce dense micro-structure, so durability is improved greatly
• Stronger transition zone at the interface between cement paste and aggregate
• Low free lime content
• Low heat of hydration due to use of supplementary cementitious materials

HPC is increasingly used in the construction industry. Of course, DTS diamond tools also provide all kind of premium concrete diamond tooling for concrete building, such as quick change diamond grinding heads, hybrid floor polishing pads, etc. If you are interested in our products, we're happy to help you or to answer any questions you may have about our products.