High Performance Concrete for High-rise Construction

Dr. Manamohan R Kalgal Technical Advisor, UltraTech Cement Ltd. President, Indian Concrete Institute

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Introduction:

Concrete is ubiquitous in our built environment - be it in buildings, roads, bridges, railways, or dams. Global growth in concrete consumption is partly due to the rapid industrialization of developing countries such as China and India. In the developed world, demand is driven more by the need to replace, repair, and retrofit existing structures. Concrete is considered to be a sustainable material for construction in comparison to the available alternatives of similar virtues.

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.