IIT-Hyderabad researchers develop Ultra-High Performance Concrete

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology - Hyderabad have developed an affordable special Ultra-High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Sangareddy: Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology – Hyderabad have developed an affordable special Ultra-High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) using locally available materials like cement, fly-ash, river sand, ground granulated blast furnace slag, micro-silica, water, steel fiber, polypropylene fibers and high range water reducing agents (HRWRA).

The breakthrough development is expected to bring down the cost by two times when copared to the commercially available proprietary products, the Institute said in a press release here on Friday.

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The newly developed composition combines the best features of self-consolidating concrete (SCC), fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC), and high-performance concrete (HPC) and is used in construction of bridge girders. Complimenting Prof Suriya and his team on the findings, the institute director Prof B S Murty said strong and durable infrastructure is a must for holistic development of any nation.

“Developing construction materials with improved strength using locally available raw materials is a creditable stride towards realising our dream of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat. I am sure such innovation will not only benefit local development in terms of economic and efficient infrastructure but extend its advantage to the infrastructure sector globally”, he said.

Listing out the uniqueness of the UHPFRC, Prof S Suriya Prakash said the aim was to develop an affordable ultra-high-performance concrete using locally-available materials and do a thorough material categorisation to understand the behavior of UHPFRC in compression, tension, fracture, and direct shear.

“Several full-scale bridge girders made of UHPFRC were tested. Our test results have given deeper insights into the shear behavior of pre-stressed bridge girders, which will be used to develop design guidelines for practising engineers. Our research is expected to increase the confidence in using UHPFRC in India’s various infrastructure applications” Prof Suriya Prakash said.

He and his team have extensively worked on various industry-relevant research work and developing innovative solutions, including the use of Glass FRP rebars, lightweight precast concrete panels, Carbon FRP based strengthening solution sand Ultra-High-Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) for infrastructure applications.