Articles

The Future of Ultra High-Performance Concrete

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Abstract

We live on a planet with a fixed quantity of resources and a large population, but growing at a reduced rate. The growing population results in a significant pressure on our planet, causing extreme weather and the aging population is creating additional demand with diminishing labor supply. These factors are creating a perfect storm of increased population densities, overload of our infrastructure, exceeding capacity limits of supply chains, an increase in natural disasters and a large, growing momentum for more environmentally, sustainable, resilient infrastructure - the critically important infrastructure that provides our quality of life—clean water, sanitation, the movement and housing of people and goods. Historically, we have solved the problems of increasing demand by expanding the capacity of our infrastructure. It has become obvious that it is unacceptable to continue providing the same solution to these problems by expanding capacity and consuming our limited resources. In a world demanding a Circular Economy, engineers play a critical role in providing new technological solutions for more sustainable, greener, resilient infrastructure to meet the global needs. New advanced materials, methods and processes are required. While Ultra-High Performance Concrete is not new, in the history of materials it is still in its early development stage and most of its potential is not yet realized or in many cases recognized by key decision-makers. This paper reviews the development of UHPC, presents a future view of how the material technology will address many of the world's demand for more sustainable and resilient infrastructure. The paper will cover future potential UHPC products/solutions, manufacturing methods and overall market potential.

Keywords: resilient, infrastructure, durability, applications, market size, sustainability

How to Cite:

Perry, V., (2023) “The Future of Ultra High-Performance Concrete”, International Interactive Symposium on Ultra-High Performance Concrete 3(1): 65. doi: https://doi.org/10.21838/uhpc.16681

Rights: © 2023 The Author(s). All rights reserved.