The Application of UHSC for Load-bearing Composite Elements and Structures

In last decade a great attention was paid for research and development of new generation of concrete. Existing knowledge in the field of high strength, resp. high performance concrete (HSC, resp. HPC) and ultra high strength concrete (UHSC), resp. ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) have been used for many successful projects of various kind of concrete structures all over the world. Codification of HSC classes in current standards created legal space and tools for its application in practical design and construction execution. Despite of certain resistance from the side of contractors and partly of ready mix concrete producers of HSC, respectively HPC is finding more and more space for its applications in concrete practice. At present time it is possible to observe also an increasing interest in research field of the UHPC in many countries. UHPC is gradually moving from the laboratory towards the concrete practice. As the matter of fact the design of elements, resp. constructions of UHPC is not yet reflected in valid standards. Only some regulations were published in the recent time. In spite that a lot of information about successful UHPC applications have been presented and published recently.