Unit for Construction Materials
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High Performance Concrete

​​​High Performance Concrete (HPC) is improving the performance of conventional concrete in unconventional ways. Examples of this include the use of convetional concrete in 3D printing or using textiles to reinforce concrete or using glow-in-the-dark aggregates. High Strength Concrete (HSC) is another example of HPC and has a compressive strength between 60 MPa and 120 MPa. The current structural design code used in South Africa, SANS 10100, does not allow for the design of concrete members using strengths of more than 50 MPa. The Euro Code, EN 1992-1, does however allow for concrete up to 105 MPa cube strength.  With the revision of SANS 10100 the local South African industry will be able to specify concrete up to 105 MPa. Little is however known about HSC using local materials. This research aims to investigate the properties of HSC using local materials and also develop mix design methods using these materials. Further focus is placed on the autogenous shrinkage, which is an important property of HPC to take note of, and ways to mitigate this time-dependent deformation.


Tensile Creep of Textile Reinforced Concrete

Student: Vital Alexander (PhD)

Supervisor: Dr Riaan Combrinck & Prof Billy Boshoff


3D Printing of Conventional Concrete

Student: Friedhelm Gunzel (M.Eng)

Supervisor: Dr Riaan Combrinck


Glocrete

Student: Hanru Muller (M.Eng)

Supervisor: Dr Riaan Combrinck​