Iran J Sci Technol Trans Civ Eng

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40996-018-0196-y (0123456789().,-volV)(0123456789().,-volV)

REVIEW PAPER

Impact Resistance and Mechanical Properties of UHPFRC

Suruchi Mishra1 • H. K. Sharma1

Received: 29 December 2017 / Accepted: 22 October 2018

 Shiraz University 2018

Abstract
Ultra-high-performance fibre-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) is a comparatively new generation of fibre-reinforced
composites that have been developed to give outstanding material performance than other types of concrete. Such superior
properties have been achieved through the use of an optimized combination of its ingredients like cement, fine sand,
microsilica, high range water reducing agent, low w/c ratio and fibres. A detailed study on the mechanical properties of
UHPFRC, considering various important factors, is authoritative in order to obtain necessary information for its practical
application. Therefore, present paper reviewed the mechanical properties and impact resistance of UHPFRC. It is examined
whether (1) UHPFRC is able to absorb sufficient mechanical energy under impact loading than that of normal strength
concrete with and without fibres; (2) the use of hybrid steel fibre (long ? short) is effective in improving the impact
resistance of UHPFRC compared to containing single type of fibres.

Keywords UHPFRC
NSC
Hybrid fibres
Structural behaviour
Impact

1 Introduction and ductility, and unique strain hardening response with

Current world events have clearly demonstrated that the
measures to protect civilian and military structures from
terrorist and enemy attacks have never been greater. Since
9/11 there has been a demand for enhancing the resistance
of structure under extreme loadings such as earthquakes,
impacts, and blast. The performance of buildings and other
infrastructures under such extreme loading conditions has
attracted increasing attention from the public in recent
decades. One of the most up and coming methods for
developing the performance of concrete structures at high
strain rate is the development of high toughness material
using fibres so as to minimize damage and to prevent
collapse. Due to the fibre bridging at crack surfaces with
the allowed process, a significant enhancement of the
fracture toughness in concrete can be obtained. Recently
developed reactive powder concrete (RPC) has been found
better in receiving good attention from several researchers
and engineers on account of the extremely high strength
& Suruchi Mishra
suruchi_6160058@nitkkr.ac.in
1
Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of
Technology, Kurukshetra, Haryana 136119, India
multiple microcracks (Yoo et al. 2013). Although RPC has
tremendous advantages under high rate loading, the
application of this material under structures subjected to
dynamic loadings has been limited due to inadequate
understandings of the material and experimental results.
The most effective method for the passive protection to
government and military structures from improvised
explosive devices or direct armed attack is sufficient stand-
off distance followed by the materials which can possess
great resistance to impact loading. A new modern material
like UHPFRC possessing exceptional material character-
istics like self-consolidating workability, very high
mechanical properties and low permeability resulting in
excellent environmental resistance, can extremely enhance
the impact resistance of cladding panels and walls by
maintaining its standard thickness in appearance (Millon
et al. 2010).
To prevent structural collapse, perforation of the pro-
jectile and consequently people’s injuries, the buildings of
strategic importance like bunkers must possess a much
greater resistance to impact loading. It is well known that
conventional fibre-reinforced concrete (FRC) has good
impact resistance capacity. However, several authors sug-
gested that UHPFRC has much greater capacity to absorb
mechanical energy (Habel and Gauvreau 2008) and fewer

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tendencies to spalling and scabbing under impact loading.
So far, most of the researches conducted on composite
applications have concentrated on static and pseudo-dy-
namic loadings. Therefore, in many situations, structures
undergo impact or dynamic loadings, such as when there is
an explosion, impact of ice load on pile structures, acci-
dental falling loads, tornado generated projectile. The
characteristics of impact load are different from these static
and seismic loads. Since the duration of loading is very
short, the strain rate of material becomes significantly
higher than under static and dynamic loading. Additionally,
structure deformation and failure modes are also different
from those under various strain rates belonging to various
load events. Concrete structures are subjected to a wide
range of strain rates. These strain rates range from the order
of 10-8 s-1 for creep, to the order 103 for blast (Thomas
and Sorensen 2017). Typical strain rate ranges for various
loading types are shown in Fig. 1.
Reinforced concrete is commonly used in the structural
members which are designed for taking the effect of static
and dynamic loading. Impact load is a type of dynamic
load which is not taken into account in the design of
concrete slab like others types of loads. Impact load may
occur due to several reasons. Typical examples are trans-
portation structures subjected to vehicular impact, marine
and offshore structures subjected to ice impact and struc-
ture bearing shock and impact loads during explosions.
Some other examples of impact load may be listed. How-
ever, there are few studies in developing countries like
India on their effects in comparison to the studies on static
and dynamic load effects. The primary reason of such little
research is because of the fact that the analysis and design
of structures subjected to impact loading are generally very
complex and such analysis is further complicated when
working with inelastic materials like reinforced concrete
(RC), FRC, slurry infiltrated fibrous concrete (SIFCON),
UHPFRC, etc.
Fig. 1 Strain rate ranges for
various loading types (Tran and
Kim 2014)
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2 Behaviour of UHPFRC Under Quasi-Static
Loading
UHPFRC is popularized as a superior type of high-per-
formance concrete (HPC) described by a low water-cement
ratio, inclusion of a high quantity of pozzolanic materials,
higher tensile strength and higher durability properties. The
most important role of fibres in concrete is the ability to
reduce crack propagation. The microcracks occur due to
internal stress developed in hardened concrete. The addi-
tion of arbitrarily dispersed microsteel fibres is able to
transfer the stresses within the concrete microstructure,
which will prevent the propagation of the cracks. Due to
these fibre properties, tensile strength, fracture toughness,
flexural strength, and resistance under impact loadings can
be enhanced. Brittleness and mode of failure of concrete
can be reduced by the inclusion of steel fibres in HPC.
Concrete with higher tensile strength (TS), ductility,
toughness and durability properties can be produced using
fibres in the cementitious matrix. The effect of material on
UHPFRC and the properties of steel fibres is shown in
Tables 1 and 2, respectively.
The common use of steel fibres (size \ 13 mm and
volume content is up to 2%) in UHPFRC would probably
be due to the many favourable properties: High modulus of
elasticity, high strength, high ductility and a very good
durability in the alkaline environment of the concrete.
Failure will normally be characterized by a bond failure
between the fibre and the surrounding matrix, due to their
limited aspect ratio. Inside the concrete, the steel fibres are
protected against corrosion by the alkaline environment
(Mueller and Haist 2009).
Figure 2 shows the stress–strain curve for a typical
UHPFRC material tested in direct tension. Following the
definition of Naaman and Reinhardt (2003), the material is
in strain hardening, because of its tensile strength, rpc, is in
excess of its cracking stress, rcc. The idealized modelling
approach distinguishes the tensile behaviour into three
parts, as follows:
Part-I: strain-based elastic part, determined by the initial
tensile behaviour up to rcc, which is defined as a fictitious
point of transition from ideal linear elastic to best fitted
linear strain-hardening behaviour, and determined by the
associated strain ecc and the elastic modulus Ecc.
Iran J Sci Technol Trans Civ Eng

Table 1 Effect of mineral admixtures, water binder ratio, steel fibre and superplasticizer on compressive strength and flexural strength of
UHPFRC
S. Mineral Mineral admixture Water Super Compressive Flexural Steel fibre content References
no. Admixture cement ratio binder plasticizer strength (MPa) strength (% by volume)
ratio (kg/m3) (MPa)

1 Silica 0.33 0.18 27.6 172.2 19.2 2 Schießl et al.

fume (2007)
2 Silica 0.259 0.20 35 131 – 19.79 Habel et al.
fume (2008)
3 Metakaolin 0.15 0.155 – 159 – 2.0 Al-Azzawi
et al. (2011)
4 Silica 0.10 0.17 – 198 – 2.0 Al-Azzawi
fume et al. (2011)
5 Silica 0.025 0.14 14.5 230 – – Roux et al.
fume (1996)
6 Silica 0.32 0.11 30.7 155 – 4.0 Alsalman
fume et al. (2017)
7 Silica 0.25 0.15 – 250 18 3.0 Xu et al.
fume (2015)
8 Silica 0.24 0.13 13 170–230 25–60 8.0 Richard et al.
fume (1995)
9 Silica 0.23 0.146 18 490–680 45–102 27.0 Richard et al.
fume (1995)
10 Silica 0.25 0.22 – 202 42.9 2.0 Prem et al.
fume (2012)

Table 2 Properties of fibres (Mueller and Haist 2009)

S. Type of fibres Diameter Density (kg/ Tensile strength Modulus of elasticity Strain at fracture Maximum
no. (mm) m3) (MPa) (GPa) (%) temperature (C)

1 Steel 0.1–0.5 7800 500–2600 200 5–35 1000

2 Glass 0.012–0.002 2600 2000–4000 75 20–35 800
3 Carbon 0.015 1750–1910 2000–4000 200–450 4–15 3000
4 Polypropylene 0.05 980 450–700 7.5–12 60–90 150
5 Polyvinyl alcohol 0.013–0.3 1300 800–900 26–30 50–75 240
(PVA)

Part-II: strain-based strain hardening part, determined
by the dissipated energy per unit volume gf,A, 99% of the
tensile strength of the composite rpc, its associated strain
epc and esoft, hardening modulus Ehc and the residual strain
eres and
Part-III: crack opening-based softening part, which is
characterized by the dissipated energy per crack surface
area Gf,B.
In a tensile strain hardening material, Part II is associ-
ated with multiple cracking, while Part III belongs to the
softening curve related to crack localization. The unloading
modulus Epc is of importance to clearly differentiate
between energy dissipation during strain hardening (vol-
ume based) and during strain softening (area based).
Dehn et al. (2006) investigated whether during the
mixing process the mixing period, temperature of mixtures,
engine speed, engine output, energy consumption, etc.
influence the fresh concrete properties of HPFRCC. The
results indicate that the mixing process has an emphatic
influence on the obtainable HPFRCC properties in the fresh
state. Dils et al. (2012) concluded that during mixing of
concrete, several parameters influence the resulting fresh
and hardened concrete properties. Delayed addition of the
super plasticizer leads to an improved workability, espe-
cially when a low water-to-cement ratio is used. Dils et al.
(2015) studied that all the mechanical properties after
28 days curing are improved by reducing the air content in
the ultra-high-performance concrete by the effect of

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Fig. 2 Tensile behaviour of UHPFRC and idealized modelling approach (Naaman and Reinhardt 2003)
vacuum mixing. With an increase in compressive strength
between 7 and 22%, bending tensile strength increases with
17%, the splitting tensile strength gains 3–22% and the
modulus of elasticity improves with 3–8% by vacuum
mixing technology at 28 days. Fládr et al. (2017) investi-
gated that the flexural behaviour of materials was unaf-
fected by the mixing procedure applied, the variance of the
results was 7% and the compressive strength was signifi-
cantly affected, the difference between the best and the
worst results was almost 30%. It was also found that
addition of silica fume before cement can increase com-
pressive strength compared to the standard procedure when
silica fume is added after cement. Schießl et al. (2007)
studied the effect of mixing time, mixing tool speed and
concrete composition of ultra-high-performance concrete
(UHPC) and self-compacting concrete (SCC). They found
that by increasing the mixing tool speed to approximately
3 m/s, it was possible to reduce the mixing time for SCC,
including addition of water and super plasticizer, to 60 s
and for UHPC 90 s. After raising the speed above 3.0 m/s,
the mixing time of the UHPC was not reduced.
Habel et al. (2006) developed self-compacting UHPFRC
without heat treatment to describe the mechanical proper-
ties (i.e. compressive strength = 168 MPa, tensile
strength = 11 MPa, Hardening, Fracture energy, and stiff-
ness) and time dependent properties (i.e. degree of hydra-
tion and degree of reaction) at 28 days and compared to
conventional concrete. The development of tensile prop-
erties was slower as compared to compressive strength.
The faster rate of the development of the degree of the
reaction of the UHPFRC leads to higher early age strength
and stiffness as compared to conventional concrete. Hasan
et al. (2016) investigated experimentally whether under all
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Iran J Sci Technol Trans Civ Eng
curing conditions, the compressive strength increases by
1.5–2.1% with increasing fibre content. Sample with
16 mm fibre length, when subjected to steam curing for
90 days, produces better results in terms of compressive
strength (177 MPa) than the other samples. The results
show that the best compressive strength and impact resis-
tance results were obtained with 16 mm long fibres.
The tensile fracture properties of UHPFRC considering
the effects of fibre volume content (0–5%) were studied by
Kang et al. (2010). They found that the flexural tensile
strength of UHPFRC linearly increases as the fibre volume
ratio increases from 0 to 5% and also the tensile fracture
configurations were analysed by the three-point bending
test. Prakash et al. (2017) indicated that compressive
strength is found to vary marginally for fibre dosages up to
4%. A maximum strain value equal to 0.08 is obtained for
10% fibre volume which is much higher than the failure
strain of plain concrete which is 0.0035. The tensile to
compressive strength ratio showed a decreasing trend
beyond a fibre volume of 6%. Sovjak et al. (2016, 2017)
found that the effective fracture energy increases as the
aspect ratio (50:1, 59.1:1, 72.2:1 and 108:1) of fibres
increases and the best performance was achieved which has
the highest aspect ratio of fibres. In addition, it was found
that this trend tends to follow a linear relationship. The
fibre volume fraction is kept constant for the entire test, i.e.
2% (Sovjáka et al. 2017). The fibre volume fraction varied
from 1 to 5% (Sovják et al. 2016).
Wille et al. (2015) investigated the material efficiency
factor (E) of different constituents in the UHPC design. E
was defined to consider the performance of UHPC in
workability, compressive strength, and cost for the selec-
tion of the most effective material. They also concluded
Iran J Sci Technol Trans Civ Eng
that the addition of fibre beyond 1.5% by volume to the
UHPC mixture increases the cost per cubic metre. Yang
et al. (2010) presented an experimental study on the flex-
ural characteristics (cracking, failure pattern, deflection,
ductility and flexural capacity) of UHPC beam reinforced
with steel fibres (up to 2%) and low rebar ratio (0.02). The
flexural resistance of the UHPC beams increased when
rebar was embedded. They also used two different placing
methods for UHPC (1) placed concrete in one end of the
form and allowed to flow to the other ends to complete
filling process. (2) Placed concrete in mid span and allowed
to flow to both ends of the form. In their test results, the
UHPC beam when placed in one end provided a maximum
load that is 15 5 higher than when placed at the centre.
Yoo et al. (2016) reported that the use of hooked and
twisted steel fibres improved the mechanical properties of
UHPFRC as compared to the straight steel fibres. They also
found that the use of silica fume (up to 30%) increased the
bond strength and pull out energy, whereas the use of fly
ash and slag affected the flexural strength and toughness. A
lower curing temperature (20 C ± 2) generally required a
longer curing period to achieve strength to those of heat
curing (90 C ± 2). Yu et al. (2016) showed that the uti-
lization of hybrid steel fibre (HF) enhances the mechanical
properties of the developed UHPFRC, the application of
fibres with hooked ends is crucial in improving the energy
absorption capacity of the sustainable UHPFRC in quasi-
static mode. The UHPFRC mixture with hybrid fibres
shows a much better energy absorption capacity. Yu et al.
(2014) indicated the ultimate flexural strengths of the
concrete with hybrid long steel fibre (at 1.5% fibre con-
tents) and short fibre (at 0.5% fibre contents) at 7 and
28 days as 24.3 MPa and 30.9 MPa, respectively. When
only short steel fibres are utilized corresponding to (2%
fibre content), the ultimate flexural strengths at 7 and
28 days reduce to 18.4 MPa and 21.5 MPa, respectively.
The compressive strengths of concrete with long and short
steel fibres significantly increased as compared to the
concrete without steel fibres. Figure 3 shows the mechan-
ical performance of NSC and UHPFRC under compression
and tensile loading conditions.
3 Behaviour of UHPFRC Under Impact
Loading
Terror attacks against civilians continued to increase
worldwide. Ordinary concrete, which is the most com-
monly used construction material, is, however, vulnerable
to the extreme loadings caused by impacts and blasts. This
vulnerability is due to the brittle nature of concrete under
tension, which results in poor mechanical energy absorp-
tion capacity and sudden collapse shortly after the
formation of first cracking. In particular, high-performance
fibre-reinforced concrete (HPFRC) has recently been con-
sidered as a material applicable for structures subjected to
these types of extreme loadings, due to its high strength
(i.e. a compressive strength greater than 100 MPa and a
design tensile strength greater than 7 MPa) and energy
dissipating capacity.
The impact performance of important and sensitive
infrastructures or objects having a high-risk prospective
was considered in the past. Nuclear power stations are the
example of impact load caused by a plane crash. Bridges
piers having greater span also have to resist the impact load
caused due to the truck or ship crash. These are some of the
few examples of important infrastructures/buildings that
have to be protected against a possible collapse in the case
of a critical incident. However, not only important infras-
tructural buildings but also smaller technical facilities can
cause serious damaging events when they fail under impact
loading. Additionally, not only can accidental events result
in the collapse of infrastructural buildings and great loss of
life but also intentional events, like terrorist attacks, have
to be extremely considered these days. Hence, considering
the great potential energy absorption capacity of UHPFRC,
it is utilized to design and produce such protective struc-
tures. Simultaneously, the numerical simulation tools are
applied to forecast the impact resistance capacity of the
designed UHPFRC.
UHPFRC is one of the breakthroughs in the twenty-first
century in the field of concrete materials which have
specifically tailored characteristics, resulting in excellent
mechanical properties and a very low permeability. Its high
strength and strain hardening characteristics under tensile
loading make it resistant to severe loading and environ-
mental action. UHPFRC is able to absorb a large amount of
energy during fracture.
Mechanical impact testing has been generally carried
out using Charpy test on the beam or dropped weight on
slabs or beam or projectile impact test on beams or slab.
The reported improvement in impact response of UHPFRC
varies widely and depends to a large extent on the energy
and velocity of the impact mass, size of the specimen,
rigidity of supports, type of test, and even the definition of
failure. The impact response of fibrous concrete with steel
or polypropylene fibres is 2–10 time’s plain concrete.
In the present paper, several studies have been con-
ducted to examine impact resistance of concrete materials
ranging from NSC, RC, and HPC. Recently, a mix of
UHPFRC and its application towards slim targets to resist
an in-service projectile have been reported (Máca et al.
2014; Sovjak et al. 2013). The slab having 2% fibre volume
shows enhanced impact resistance against projectiles
impact. The damage has been measured based on pene-
tration depth, crack diameter and mass loss. It has also been
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Fig. 3 Mechanical properties of NSC and UHPFC under compressive (left) and tensile (right) loading (Wu et al. 2009)
reported that with increased fibre volume from 2 to 3%
there is no significant improvement in impact performance.
The matrix composition and fibre type play an important
role in impact resistance capacity. A study on SIFCON
under high-velocity projectile impact by Anderson et al.
(1992) confirmed the efficiency of fibres in decreasing
damage capacity of concrete structures.
3.1 Experimental Investigations
Bindiganavile et al. (2002) concluded that under impact
loading, carbon reinforced concrete (CRC) is capable of
dissipating much higher energy compared with conven-
tional FRC with polymeric or steel fibre. CRC is an ultra-
high-performance concrete (UHPC) with a compressive
strength around 200 MPa and splitting tensile strength was
found to be around 20 MPa. Elavenil et al. (2012) found
that the maximum displacement is nearly 50 mm for 0.5%
as compared to 1% fibre content for 20 mm thickness of
the plates, and 40 mm for 25 mm thickness of plates and
35 mm for 30 mm thickness of plates. The maximum
velocity occurs at 0.5 s for all the plates of thickness 25
and 30 mm. Kravanja et al. (2017) conducted an experi-
mental research of impact resistance of semi-infinite
UHPFRC targets with five different fibre volumes ranging
from 0.125 to 2% using deformable (SLC) and non-
deformable (MSC) projectiles at high impact velocities
(710 m/s). The area and the volume of the impact crater
decrease significantly with small quantities of fibres and
further decreases with gradual increments of fibre content
and showed enhanced impact resistance properties com-
pared to the plain high-performance concrete behaviour.
Maca et al. (2014) experimentally found that specimens
containing 2% of fibres by volume have optimal resistance
against deformable impact. Direct tensile strength and
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Iran J Sci Technol Trans Civ Eng
flexural strength of the UHPFRC seemed to increase
gradually with increasing content of fibres up to the 3%.
Mastali et al. (2017) investigated that the concrete rein-
forced with steel fibres significantly increased the failure
blow number under drop weight impact test. In projectile
impact test, functionally graded reinforced concrete leads
to further reduction in penetration depth and destroyed the
front area, compared to entirely reinforced cross-sectional
concrete with equal fibre content.
A new class of UHPFRC material has been developed in
the presence of a high volume fraction (0–10%) of steel
fibres, which is characterized by high compressive strength
(174 MPa), high tensile/flexural strength (23.9/30.6 MPa)
and high energy absorption capacity for the impact and
blast load resistance (Nicolaides et al. 2015a, b). The
behaviour of UHPFRC slab specimens for both types of
impact loads (i.e. projectile and bullet), the size of craters
(average diameter and volume) was considerably lower
comparing to reinforced concrete slabs (Nicolaides et al.
2015b). The curing of specimens in lower temperatures
than 90 C (i.e. 20 C, 40 C and 65 C) did not give as
high a strength volume as obtained at 90 C and the opti-
mum volume fibre content was 6%, i.e. 1.5% of fibres
13 mm long and 4.5% of fibres 6 mm long has significantly
increased the mechanical properties (Nicolaides et al.
2015a).
Othman et al. (2016) confirmed that UHPFRC plates
exhibit superior damage control characteristics compared
to high strength concrete (HSC) plates. 1–2% fibre content
has a limited effect on the impact capacity compared to
increasing the fibre content from 2 to 3%. The use of a fibre
content of 3% is more significant in enhancing dynamic
performance compared to two other steel fibre contents of 1
and 2%, respectively. Park et al. (2017) observed that the
dynamic increase factor (DIF) of the tensile parameters of
Iran J Sci Technol Trans Civ Eng
the strain-hardening fibre-reinforced cementitious com-
posites (SH-FRCCs), as the strain rate increased, is
strongly dependent on the matrix strength although they
generally increased at a lower strength matrix and pro-
duced higher DIFs for both the strain capacity and peak
toughness. Park et al. (2016) studied the direct tensile stress
versus strain responses of UHPFRCs at high strain rates
(10–150 s-1). The post-cracking strength of the UHPFRCs
containing 2% straight steel fibres increased from 16.5 to
47.1 MPa. All the UHPFRC specimens with 1.5% high-
strength smooth steel fibres showed tensile-strain harden-
ing. Pyo et al. (2016) investigated that specimens with
twisted fibres generally exhibit somewhat better mechani-
cal properties than specimens with straight fibres for the
range of strain rates considered. Fibre aspect ratio and
twisting play an important role in the response of UHPFRC
under tension at high strain rates. Post-cracking strength
and energy absorption capacity increase greatly under
impact loading. Smith et al. (2014) demonstrated that
addition of steel microfibres enhanced the resistance to
deformable projectile impact and it was specified that
specimens containing 2% of fibres by volume have optimal
resistance against impact loading. Fibre content beyond 1%
had no significant effect on penetration depth. UHPFRC
slab tends to decrease the crater diameters by 42–50%
compared to their plain UHPC up to fibre content 2%.
Radoslav et al. (2015) observed that the optimal fibre
content in the UHPFRC mixture is 2% by volume. Using
less than 2% of fibre volume fraction might be unsafe in the
slim UHPFRC targets due to the increased volume of
secondary fragments generated from the back side of the
slab. No improvement in all damage parameters was
observed when the fibre volume, therefore fraction, was
changed from 2 to 3 or 5%.
The impact response was determined on UHPFRC slabs
(300 9 300 9 50 mm) with the fibre volume fraction
ranging from 0.125 to 2% by Sovjak et al. (2017). They
showed that the best performance was achieved with the
highest fibre volume fraction and at 2% of the fibre in the
UHPFRC resulted in no scabbing and only a localized front
crater forming without any radial cracking. Tran et al.
(2017) investigated the synergistic tensile response of
blending 1% long and 0.5% short steel fibres in UHPC at
high strain rates of 16–37 s-1. The blending of long and
shorter steel fibres in UHPC generated high synergy in the
tensile responses of the UHPFRCs, especially at high strain
rates. Among the long fibres, the hooked fibres generated
the highest synergy at high strain rates, but smooth fibres
produced the highest rate of sensitivity in UHPC. Tran
et al. (2016) investigated the fracture energy of UHPFRC at
high strain rates (5–92 s-1). Test results indicated that
smooth fibres exhibited higher fracture strength (ft) and
specific work-of-fracture (WS) at high rates than twisted
fibres and higher fibre volume content did not clearly
generate higher WS and fracture energy (WF) at high rates.
UHPFRC blending two fibres produced higher WS and WF
than UHPFRC with mono-fibre at high rates. Wille et al.
(2014) experimentally investigated and analysed the strain
hardening and softening tensile parameters, such as first
cracking stress and strain, elastic and strain hardening
modulus, composite strength and energy dissipation
capacity. Wu et al. (2017) indicated that UHPC with 1.5%
long fibre reinforcements and 0.5% short fibre reinforce-
ments demonstrated the best static and dynamic mechani-
cal properties. The static compressive and flexural
strengths of UHPC with 2% long fibre reinforcements were
greater than those with 2% short fibre reinforcements. The
dynamic compressive properties, including peak stress,
dynamic increase factor, and fracture energy of UHPC,
increased gradually with the increase in the strain rate
energy.
Xu et al. (2015) investigated the fracture energy of
UHPFRC under direct tensile loading applied at relatively
low strain rates. The test results showed that for one crack,
the dissipated energy during strain hardening is about 100
times larger than the energy dissipated through softening
for specimens with comparable fibre factors. The fracture
energy of all UHPFRC series is strain rate sensitive and
increases with increase in strain rate. Yoo et al. (2016)
investigated experimentally, under impact loading condi-
tions, whether the flexural strength and energy absorption
capacity were both increased with better fibre orientation.
It was also concluded that the inclusion of 2% (by volume)
of steel fibres is not effective in improving the post-peak
ductility of the ultra-high-strength matrix under
compression.
Yoo et al. (2015a) investigated that the maximum crack
width at a certain drop stage decreased with the rein-
forcement ratio, whereas the number of cracks increased.
The typical impact load–time response is Specimen
(without rebar) which exhibited a peak impact load of
145.2 kN and an impulse of 2.9 kN, respectively. The
UHPFRC beams with rebars showed slightly higher peak
loads of 165.0–167.0 kN and impulses of 3.3 kN, respec-
tively. Yoo et al. (2016) examined whether increase in the
reinforcement ratio of glass fibre reinforced polymer
(GFRP) rebar resulted in the improvement of their flexural
performances, including post-cracking stiffness, load car-
rying capacity, and ductility. The use of hybrid reinforce-
ments by replacing a part of a GFRP rebar with a steel
rebar contributed to higher post-cracking stiffness before
steel yielding but led to lower deformability. Yoo et al.
(2015b) investigated the low-velocity impact response for
steel fibre-reinforced concrete (SFRC) beams with various
strengths. The quasi-static flexural strength and deflection
capacity were increased by the steel fibres in compression.
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The linearity of the pre-peak load–deflection response was
increased with the strength and ultra-high-strength concrete
(UHSC) exhibited almost linear behaviour up to cracking.
The peak impact load and stress rate of all test series were
increased with the increase in kinetic energy and strength,
while these were marginally affected by the steel fibres. Yu
et al. (2016) studied whether the higher proportion of short
straight fibre (more than 2%) decreases the energy
absorption capacity of the concrete. The addition of hybrid
steel fibre is more beneficial for improving the energy
dissipation capacity. The hybrid steel fibre-reinforced
specimen is more efficient in resisting pendulum impact
than the concrete with single sized fibres.
3.2 Analytical and Numerical Investigations
Anil et al. (2016) obtained experimentally that the smallest
cracks formed on the test specimen’s manufactured using
Engineered Cementitious Concrete (ECC) and the largest
cracks formed on the test specimens manufactured using
low strength concrete. For the numerically simulated
specimens, analytical results are in good agreement with
the measured results in terms of maximum displacement
and load values. Anil et al. (2015) observed experimentally
as well as analytically (ANSYS) that the highest number of
drops is obtained from the specimens supported on four
sides, while the lowest number of drops is obtained when
the slab is supported on two adjacent sides. It was also
observed that generally crack distribution is concentrated at
supported sides while fewer cracks are observed on the
sides without supports.
Habel et al. (2008) presented an experimental and ana-
lytical (ANSYS) study of rate-dependent UHPFRC beha-
viour. The results of this study showed that multiple
cracking was observed in the high moment region and final
fracture occurred by fibre pull-out in one localized bending
crack at the centre of the specimen. Lai et al. (2013)
studied whether the peak stress and elastic modulus
decrease and the strain rate and peak strain increase grad-
ually with increasing numbers of impacts. Analytically
(ANSYS), the peak stress and elastic modulus decrease and
the strain rate and peak strain increase gradually with
increasing numbers of impacts. The damage to the RPC
increased with the number of impacts, but it decreased with
hybrid fibre reinforcement. Mao et al. (2017) investigated
whether the increase in UHPFRC (with 2% fibre volume)
toughness with strain rate can be observed clearly or not.
The specimen with high fibre volume gives a clearer
toughness increasing trend, and strain rate effect and blast
resistance effect improved with the increase in fibre vol-
ume in UHPFRC specimen. Liu et al. (2012) discussed the
Lattice Discrete Particle Model for fibre reinforced con-
crete (LDPM-F). It is a three-dimensional model which is
123
Iran J Sci Technol Trans Civ Eng
calibrated and validated and applied to the simulation of
projectile penetration. The crack pattern for NSC, UHPC,
and UHPC with increasing fibre content was also explored
using LDPM-F. LDPM-F can be used to investigate the
behaviour of new high strength ultra-high-performance
concrete (CORTUF) under impact loading, penetration and
perforation events. Wang et al. (2016) studied how the
penetration depth of the composites subjected to high-ve-
locity projectile impact (HVPI) is reduced with an increase
in the elastic modulus. The numerical (ANSYS) study
showed that the damage in the specimen increases with the
projectile velocity. Localized damage, especially the pen-
etration depths, was well predicted by the numerical
models.
The analytical and numerical models refer to the con-
stitutive equations of the material that include the equation
of state and the shear failure envelope was studied by
Yankelevsky et al. (2017). They also discussed whether
two major analytical models are available for concrete, i.e.
(1) RHT model, which requires data for numerous
parameters. (2) The concrete damage model (Mat 072),
Winfrith model (Mat 084/085) and the CSCM model (Mat
159), which requires a few key parameters, mainly uniaxial
compression strength.
4 Conclusions
The present study approaches the review conducted on
mechanical properties and impact behaviour of ultra-high-
performance fibre reinforced concrete (UHPFRC). The
result shows that UHPFRC has unique mechanical prop-
erties, low permeability and superior damage control
properties under extreme loading condition as compared to
conventional concrete.
From the above literature review and discussion, the
following conclusions are drawn:
• Literature reviews demonstrate that the fibre geometry
including size, shape and aspect ratio affected the
properties of concrete mixtures not only in the hardened
state but also in the fresh state. The use of steel fibres
(13 mm and 6 mm length) content up to 2% by volume
in UHPFRC is favourable due to its high modulus of
elasticity, high strength, high ductility and a very good
durability in the alkaline environment of the concrete as
compared to carbon and glass fibres. The hooked and
twisted steel fibre reinforcement offers some additional
benefits in the physical and mechanical properties
compared to composites containing straight fibres.
• The curing temperature affects the strength of UHPFRC
specimens. The curing at 90 C provides early high
strength as compared to curing at 20 C, 40 C and
Iran J Sci Technol Trans Civ Eng
65 C and the placing of concrete also plays an
important role. When placed in one end it provided a
maximum load compared to when placed at the centre.
• The use of silica fume up to 30% increases the bond
strength and pull out energy whereas using fly ash or
slag affected the flexural strength and toughness.
Generally, smaller cracks occurred when the specimens
were manufactured with UHPFRC and the largest
cracks occurred on the test specimens manufactured
with low strength concrete.
• The highest number of drops is obtained when the slab
is supported on four sides, while the lowest number of
drops is obtained when slabs are supported on two
adjacent sides.
• An extensive literature review conducted on the study
of mechanical and impact behaviour of UHPFRC
illustrated the limited research on economic evaluation
of HPC and UHPFRC plates.
• Most of the investigators have restricted the fibre
contents to 3% and only limited studied have been
conducted to study the variation of aspect ratio, fibre
volume content and the type of fibres in the perfor-
mance of plates under impact loading.
• The effect of different types of slab reinforcement ratio,
effect of fibre orientation and the combination of long
and short fibres, support conditions, the rate of loading,
height of drop and weight of drop with time, etc. have
had limited studies till now. Further investigations are
therefore intended to investigate the behaviour of
UHPFRC plates under impact loading.
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