RES2024-04: Development of Tennessee UHPC for Bridge Applications

Ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) is an advanced cement-based composite material, typically made with higher contents of cementitious materials (i.e., portland cement plus typically silica fume and/or metakaolin), select fine aggregate gradations, and steel fibers. The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) has not utilized UHPC in any project to date. The main concern of UHPC is the higher initial costs of production which leads to its narrower utilization in the construction industry by increasing the cost of the overall project. However, these higher initial costs may be offset by smaller structural sections and/or lower service life. Furthermore, TDOT does not have standard specifications for road and bridge construction with the utilization of UHPC. Therefore, in order to address the current challenges for the large-scale application of UHPC in various construction projects in Tennessee, locally available aggregate needs to be utilized for reducing the overall cost of the construction projects along with the development of non-propriety UHPC and its wide acceptance in road and bridge design code provisions.

• Record URL:
  • https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/tdot/long-range-planning/research/one-pagers-res-2024-projects/RES%202024-04.final.pdf

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $222000
• Sponsor Organizations:

  Tennessee Department of Transportation

  James K. Polk Building
  Fifth and Deaderick Street
  Nashville, TN  United States  37243-0349
• Managing Organizations:

  Tennessee Department of Transportation

  James K. Polk Building
  Fifth and Deaderick Street
  Nashville, TN  United States  37243-0349
• Project Managers:

  Price, Adam

• Performing Organizations:

  Tennessee Tech University

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  1020 Stadium Drive Box.5015
  Cookeville, TN  United States  38505
• Principal Investigators:

  Mohr, Benjamin

• Start Date: 20230801
• Expected Completion Date: 20250731
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Concrete bridges; Concrete construction; Costs; Local materials; Ultra high performance concrete
• Geographic Terms: Tennessee
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Construction; Highways; Materials;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01891032
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Tennessee Department of Transportation
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Aug 25 2023 12:29PM