Chapter 4
Triaxial Compressive Behavior
of UHPCC and Application
in the Numerical Analyses of Projectile
Impact
4.1 Introduction
Ultra-high performance cement based composite (UHPCC) is a relatively new type
of composite material which possess very low water-to-binder ratio, high amount
of high-range water reducer (HRWR), fine aggregates with the maximum size less
than 1 mm and high-strength steel fibers with the diameter of 0.15 ~ 0.20 mm (Graybeal 2006). Compared with the newly developed engineered cementitious composites (ECC) (Maalej et al. 2005), multi-scale cement composite (MSCC) (Rossi et al.
2005), reactive powder concrete (RPC) (Richard and Cheyrezy 1995) and slurry infiltrated fiber concrete (SIFCON) (Naaman and Homrich 1989), the ordinary curing
temperature and pressure preparation procedures, as well as the comprehensive
prominent characteristics (e.g. high compressive strength and tensile strength, high
fracture energy, self-consolidating workability and very low permeability), make
UHPCC becoming the most prospective construction materials for both military
and civil protective structures (fortifications, nuclear containment, defense shelter
and etc.), which are designed to withstand the intentional or accidental impact and
blast loadings caused by projectiles, fragments, aircrafts, explosives and etc. For
above scenarios, the concrete material always undergoes multi-axial compressions
with a high confinement, thus the investigations of triaxial compressive behavior of
UHPCC are important and essential to provide valuable information (e.g. strength
criteria, post-peak response) for the structural design and calibration/validation of
the constitutive model.
The existing works on the mechanical behavior of UHPCC were mainly concentrated on the uniaxial compressive or tensile properties (Naaman and Reinhardt 1996;
Petr et al. 2013; Wille et al. 2014), limited tests were carried out to investigate the
triaxial compressive behavior of UHPCC with relatively high confinement ratio. In
the present study, based on the previous works (Zhang et al. 2005a, b; Langberg and
Markeset 1999; Wu et al. 2015a; Máca et al. 2010; Sovják et al. 2015; Peng et al.
2016) on impact resistance of cement composites, the optimal UHPCC (straight steel
fiber with the volumetric ratio of 2%, high-strength basalt aggregates with the size
© Science Press 2021
Q. Fang et al., UHPCC Under Impact and Blast,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6842-2_4
73
Triaxial Compressive Behavior
of UHPCC and Application
in the Numerical Analyses of Projectile
Impact
4.1 Introduction
Ultra-high performance cement based composite (UHPCC) is a relatively new type
of composite material which possess very low water-to-binder ratio, high amount
of high-range water reducer (HRWR), fine aggregates with the maximum size less
than 1 mm and high-strength steel fibers with the diameter of 0.15 ~ 0.20 mm (Graybeal 2006). Compared with the newly developed engineered cementitious composites (ECC) (Maalej et al. 2005), multi-scale cement composite (MSCC) (Rossi et al.
2005), reactive powder concrete (RPC) (Richard and Cheyrezy 1995) and slurry infiltrated fiber concrete (SIFCON) (Naaman and Homrich 1989), the ordinary curing
temperature and pressure preparation procedures, as well as the comprehensive
prominent characteristics (e.g. high compressive strength and tensile strength, high
fracture energy, self-consolidating workability and very low permeability), make
UHPCC becoming the most prospective construction materials for both military
and civil protective structures (fortifications, nuclear containment, defense shelter
and etc.), which are designed to withstand the intentional or accidental impact and
blast loadings caused by projectiles, fragments, aircrafts, explosives and etc. For
above scenarios, the concrete material always undergoes multi-axial compressions
with a high confinement, thus the investigations of triaxial compressive behavior of
UHPCC are important and essential to provide valuable information (e.g. strength
criteria, post-peak response) for the structural design and calibration/validation of
the constitutive model.
The existing works on the mechanical behavior of UHPCC were mainly concentrated on the uniaxial compressive or tensile properties (Naaman and Reinhardt 1996;
Petr et al. 2013; Wille et al. 2014), limited tests were carried out to investigate the
triaxial compressive behavior of UHPCC with relatively high confinement ratio. In
the present study, based on the previous works (Zhang et al. 2005a, b; Langberg and
Markeset 1999; Wu et al. 2015a; Máca et al. 2010; Sovják et al. 2015; Peng et al.
2016) on impact resistance of cement composites, the optimal UHPCC (straight steel
fiber with the volumetric ratio of 2%, high-strength basalt aggregates with the size
© Science Press 2021
Q. Fang et al., UHPCC Under Impact and Blast,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6842-2_4
73