High Performance Concrete: From material to structure

Description

High performance concrete (HPC) is of great topical interest to the construction industry worldwide, with applications in high-rise, offshore, nuclear and bridge structures, and in precast concrete. Among the benefits of HPC are: improved workability and strength, leading to faster and more economical construction; more durable concrete, especially important for bridges, offshore and nuclear structures, and highways; improved structural characteristics, which allow more economical and efficient structural designs. Structural designers and materials technologists need information on the properties and behaviour of this new material in order to use it successfully and major programmes of research are underway in many countries to meet this, including the USA, Canada, Norway, Japan, Italy and France. The French National R & D Project, "New Developments for Concrete" is providing important insights into the materials characteristics of high performance concrete, and also of the structural behaviour of a number of major buildings and bridge structures. This book contains a series of 35 selected reviews and reports on HPC by the leading materials scientists and engineers contributing to the French programme. Previously, they have only been available to delegates at seminars and meetings in France but the most valuable have been edited and translated into English in order to make the results of the programme widely available. The book will therefore be essential for all those who need to keep fully up-to-date with developments in this exciting new area of construction activity.

'This publication constitutes proof that in the scientific field of high performance concretes there now exists a common language for the foundation of a common understanding between engineers and researchers.' - Structural Engineer