Introduction:

Concrete has been facing several challenges continually. Newer concretes with special capabilities are being developed and used. The challenges posed by high-rise structures are many, the most important is being able to pump the concrete to great heights with very good flowability. Highly flowable / self-consolidating, yet cohesive concrete which results in high strength and durability are the major challenges. The sky-scrapers are taking concrete to higher altitudes. Concrete may be required to be pumped to almost a kilometre in the City of Jeddah's Kingdom Tower!
High-Performance Concrete (HPC)
The word High Performance denotes something more than what is achieved on a routine basis and involves a specification that often requires the concrete to meet several criteria. As per American Concrete Institute (ACI) definition, HPC is a concrete meeting special combinations of performance and uniformity requirements that cannot always be achieved routinely when using conventional constituents, mixing, placing and curing practices. A high-performance concrete usually has certain characteristics that are developed for a particular application and environment.This section of the article is only available for our subscribers. Please click here to subscribe to a subscription plan to view this part of the article.