• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.161-170
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• 2023

Ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) is produced using high amount of cementitious materials, very low water/cementitious materials ratio, fine-sized fillers, and steel fibers. Due to the dense microstructure of UHPC, it possesses very high strength, elasticity, and durability. Besides that, the UHPC exhibits high ductility and fracture toughness due to presence of fibers in its matrix. While the high ductility of UHPC allows it to undergo high strain/deflection before failure, the high fracture toughness of UHPC greatly enhances its capacity to absorb impact energy without allowing the formation of severe cracking or penetration by the impactor. These advantages with UHPC make it a suitable material for construction of the structural members subjected to special loading conditions. In this research work, the UHPC mixtures having three different dosages of steel fibers (2%, 4% and 6% by weight corresponding to 0.67%, 1.33% and 2% by volume) were characterized in terms of their mechanical properties including facture toughness, before using these concrete mixtures for casting the slab specimens, which were tested under high-energy impact loading with the help of a drop-weight impact test setup. The effect of fiber content on the impact energy absorption capacity and central deflection of the slab specimens were investigated and the equations correlating fiber content with the energy absorption capacity and central deflection were obtained with high degrees of fit. Finite element modeling (FEM) was performed to simulate the behavior of the slabs under impact loading. The FEM results were found to be in good agreement with their corresponding experimentally generated results.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.151-157
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• 2014

Since recently developed Ultra-High-Performance-Concrete (UHPC) provides very high strength, stiffness, and durability, many studies have been made on the application of the UHPC to bridge decks. Due to high strength and stiffness of UHPC bridge deck, the structural contribution of top flange of steel girder composite to UHPC deck would be much lower than that of conventional concrete deck. At this point of view, this study proposes a inverted-T shaped steel girder composite to UHPC deck. This girder requires a new type of shear connector because conventional shear connectors are welded on top flange. This study also proposes three different types of shear connectors, and evaluate their ultimate strength via push-out static test. The first one is a stud shear connector welded directly to the web of the girder in the transverse direction. The second one is a puzzle-strip type shear connector developed by the European Commission, and the last one is the combination of the stud and the puzzle-strip shear connectors. Experimental results showed that the ultimate strength of the transverse stud was 26% larger than that given in the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications, but a splitting crack observed in the UHPC deck was so severe that another measure needs to be developed to prevent the splitting crack. The ultimate strength of the puzzle-strip specimen was 40% larger than that evaluated by the equation of European Commission. The specimens combined with stud and puzzle-strip shear connectors provided less strength than arithmetical sum of those. Based on the experimental observations, there appears to be no advantage of combining transverse stud and puzzle-strip shear connectors.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.765-768
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• 2008

Silica fume is a very important gradient in UHPC(Ultra High Performance Concrete) and its amount is normally over 25% of cement(wt.%). But we surely need to comprehend the influence of the amount of silica fume on the UHPC. In this paper, it was investigated how the amount of silica fume influence on the properties such as fluidity, compressive strength, elastic modulus, and flexural strength. Furthermore, it was examined the internal micro structure on UHPC through the test of SEM and MIP. In results, If we properly use silica fume in UHPC, fluidity and strength of UHPC was increased. It can be ascertained through the test of MIP that silica fume effectively increased density of UHPC by posolanic reaction and acting as filler. Especially, In case of Cement to silica fume ratio$0.1{\sim}0.25%$, we can be concluded that UHPC has similar to mechanical property.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.220-227
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• 2015

Ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) uses large quantities of steel fiber, silica fume, filler and superplasticizer for a low water-to-binder ratio (W/B). Despite of exceptional mechanical performances, UHPC exhibits increased viscosity due to the adoption of silica fume and its fabrication cost is costlier than ordinary concrete because of the use of large quantities of expensive materials. Following, this study evaluates the mechanical properties of 180MPa-UHPC using zirconium silica fume (Zr) instead of silica fume with respect to the quantity and type of superplasticizer (SP) and the size of filler. The results reveal that the Zr-UHPC using W/B of 20%, 100% of Zr, amount of SP-L of 2 to 3% and $4{\mu}m$-filler with steel fiber in 1.5 vol.% can develop better fluidity than the traditional mix composition using silica fume and secure a compressive strength higher than 180 MPa. In addition, the proposed mix composition is shown to enable a reduction of the fabrication cost by 33% compared to traditional UHPC.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.175-181
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is evaluating the characteristics of tensile strength of UHPC and examining tensile performance of notched specimens by direct tensile test. For test variables, 120, 150, and 180MPa of target design standard strength were aimed at. With general water curing and $90^{\circ}C$ high temperature steam as curing conditions, the properties were reviewed. Overall, it was represented that the specimens of notch-type direct tensile strength concrete was effective in inducing central cracks compared with existing direct tension specimens. Through this, it was judged that data construction with high reliability was possible. Above all, in a graph of direct tensile strength and strain, in the case of steam curing at high temperature, there was great difference of initial tensile strength compared with water curing. As passing of ages, an aspect that the difference gradually decreased was shown. Maximum tensile strength was found to increase steadily with increasing age for all target design strengths in water curing, in the case of steam curing, the tendency to increase significantly due to the initial strength development effect at 7 days of age. The initial crack strength increases with age in case of underwater curing, in the case of steam curing, it was higher than that of water curing in 7 days, while the strength of 28 days was lowered. In this part, it is considered necessary to examine the arrangement condition of the steel fiber.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.734-737
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• 2004

The synthetic fibers such as polypropylene(PP) and polyvilyl-alcohol(PVA) fiber are poised as a low cost alternative for reinforcement in structural applications. It has been reported that synthetic fiber in cement composites can control restrained tensile stresses and cracks and increase toughness, resistance to impact, corrosion, fatigue and durability. High performance fiber reinforced cementitious composite(HPFRCCs) shows ultra high ductile behavior in the hardened state, because of the fiber bridging properties. Therefore, a variety of experiments have being performed to access the performance of HPFRCCs recently. The research emphasis is on the flexural behavior of HPFRCCs made in synthetic fibers, and how this affects the composite property, and ultimately its strain-hardening performance. Three-point bending tests on HPFECCs are carried out. As the result of the bending tests, HPFRCCs showed high flexural strength and ductility. HPFRCCs made in PVA or Hybrid fiber were, also, superior to PP of singleness. On the other hand, effect of sand volume fraction on HPFRCCs made in PP was insignificant.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.525-533
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• 2012

In this study, bending tests were performed on beam specimens made of UHPCC with the fiber content range of 0~5 vol% to investigate the contribution of fiber content to first cracking strength and flexural tensile strength. Also, four-point bending tests for unnotched beam as well as three-point bending test for notched beam were performed to estimate the effect of the presence of notch on the strengths. The experiment result showed that the increase in fiber content made linear improvement in the flexural tensile strength; whereas first cracking strength was enhanced only when at least 1 vol% of fibers was incorporated. Comparison of the bending test results with and without notch showed that the notch effect varied with the fiber content. The increase in fiber content diminished the effect of stress concentration on the notch tip, reducing the difference in the strengths. With much higher fiber content, the effect of stress concentration almost disappeared and the defection on cracking plane or the size effect dominated the strengths, consequently resulting in higher strengths in the notched beams than the unnotched ones.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.73-80
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• 2013

Polymer cement slurry (PCS) made from organic polymer dispersion and cement has good adhesion to steel, waterproofness and acid resistance due to being of polymer films formed in cement slurry. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the mix design conditions at early curing age of PCS-coating material effected on improvement in bond strength of coated rebar. The test pieces are prepared with two types of polymer dispersions such as St/BA and EVA, four polymer-cement ratios, two types of cement, four coating thicknesses and three curing ages, and tested for the bond strength test. From the test results, in general, bond strength of PCS-coated rebar is better than that of uncoated rebar and epoxy-coated rebar. It is also high bond strength at curing ages of 7-day or less, and coating thicknesses of $75{\mu}m$ and $100{\mu}m$. The maximum bond strength of PCS-coated rebar at curing age of 3-hour is almost same as that of curing age of 1-day and 7-day. The maximum bond strength of PCS-coated rebar with ultra high-early strength cement and St/BA at polymer-cement ratio of 80%, and coating thickness of $100{\mu}m$ is about 1.52 and 1.58 times respectively, the strength of uncoated rebar and epoxy-coated rebar. It is apparent that the curing age, coating thickness, type of polymer and cement are very important factors to improve the bond strength of PCS-coated rebar to cement concrete. We can have basic information that PCS-coated rebar with curing age at 3-hour and coating thickness of $100{\mu}m$ can replace epoxy-coated rebar.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.145-154
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• 2010

As buildings have become higher and larger, the use of high performance concrete has increased. With this increase, interest in and use of ultra fine powder admixture is also on the rise. The silica fume and BSF are the admixtures currently being used in Korea. However, silica fume is exclusively import dependent because it is not produced in Korea. In the case of BFS, it greatly improves concrete fluidity and long-term strength. But a problem exists in securing early strength. Furthermore, air-cooled slag is being discarded, buried in landfills, or used as road bed materials because of its low activation energy. Therefore, we investigated in this study the usability of nano-slag (both rapidly-chilled and air-cooled) as an alternative material to the silica fume. We conducted a physic-chemical analysis for the nano-slag powder and performed a mortar test to propose quality standards. The analysis and testing were done to find out the industrial usefulness of the BFS that has been grinded to the nano-level.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.125-138
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• 2018

The research on the confinement behavior of ultra high performance concrete without and with the use of steel fibers (UHPC and UHPFRC) has been extremely limited. In previous studies, authors experimentally investigated the axially compressive behavior of circular steel tube confined concrete (STCC) short and intermediate columns with the employment of UHPC and UHPFRC. Under loading on only the concrete core, the confinement effect induced by the steel tube was shown to significantly enhance the utimate stress and its corresponding strain of the concrete core. Therefore, this paper develops a simplified stress - strain model for circular STCC columns using UHPC and UHPFRC with compressive strength ranging between 150 MPa and 200 MPa. Based on the regression analysis of previous test results, formulae for predicting peak confined stress and its corresponding strain are proposed. These proposed formulae are subsequently compared against some previous empirical formulae available in the literature to assess their accuracy. Finally, the simplified stress - strain model is verified by comparison with the test results.