Development of Ultra High Performance Concrete Using Taguchi Method

Abstract

The use of Ultra high performance concrete in the construction industry started in the 1990s and has been used for bridges and tall structures. However, a developing country like India has still yet to reach the full utilization of UHPC in various infrastructure which has great untapped potential. The most evident reason for not being used in India is the cost and lack of standards and knowledge. As the durability of the structure is being given importance more and more, the demand to incorporate such concrete has also increased. As UHPC exhibits excellent mechanical properties and durability resulting in smaller sections, leads to lower weight. The aim is to achieve mix design of sufficient strength UHPC. The product development of UHPC is also done. Manhole cover made of UHPC is on focus here. Manhole cover usually comes in the material of cast iron, concrete or fibre reinforced plastic. The focus here is to reduce the thickness of manhole cover as minimum as possible and also enduring high durability properties. This study looks into making a UHPC mix design incorporating Taguchi method and getting an optimum mix. To make a design mix by Taguchi method, the results of a few research papers are validated with results. It was concluded that making UHPC mix with fibers and supplementary cementitious materials with Taguchi method will ease the effort of doing numerous experiments and gives an insight into the results and correlating the performance characteristic with parameters. Based on the literature, parameters were decided and their levels. Taguchi mix design was made for UHPC variable parameter being silica fume, metakaolin and superplasticizer. Two mix design of UHPC from the literature were carried out with different admixture. From the results of these mixes, better one was chosen to cast the UHPC manhole cover. Along with 3 numbers of manhole cover, 9 cube specimen, 6 beam specimen and 3 cylinder specimen were casted for compressive strength, flexural strength and modulus of elasticity respectively. Tests on compressive strength and flexural strength were conducted. Numerical study on manhole cover testing was done in finite element software. The loading was given according to IS 12592. The property given was modulus of elasticity. The results of numerical study was not satisfactory. The changes in employing the different type of superplasictizer played a role in results.