Ultra High Performance Concrete (UHPC), a cementitious composite material with ultra-high mechanical properties and ultra-high durability, has received widespread attention in the construction industry since its successful development in 1993, and bridge engineering is no exception. In bridge engineering, UHPC has been used in various aspects, such as the main girder structure, the main arch of an arch bridge, the waffle deck structure, bridge joints, and old bridge reinforcement. According to incomplete statistics, more than 400 bridges worldwide have adopted ultra high performance concrete as the main or part of the construction material. Over 150 bridges have adopted ultra high performance concrete as the main structural material.

The following will list some of the ultra high performance concrete in the application of national bridge projects.

(1) Canada.

In 1997 in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, the world's first ultra high performance concrete pedestrian bridge, the Sherbrooke pedestrian bridge, the bridge for the prestressed ultra high performance concrete space truss structure, spans 60m, the use of French ultra high performance concrete materials. The deck slab is made of a 3cm thick UHPC slab, the truss web is made of 15cm diameter steel pipe UHPC, and the lower chord is made of 10m prefabricated UHPC girder sections, which are not equipped with normal steel reinforcement in the sections and are assembled by post-tensioning prestressing only. The bridge was nominated for the Nova Award in 1999 because of the significant reduction in structural weight and the effective resistance to repeated freezing and thawing in the local severe winter conditions of -30°C.

(2) France.

France was the first country to commercialize ultra high performance concrete successfully and completed the world's first ultra high performance concrete road bridges, Bourg-lès-Valence OA4 and OA6 spans, in 2001. In 2005, France built a 47.4m span of ultra high performance concrete box girder highway bridge - PS34 span bridge, the top slab of ultra high performance concrete box girder is 4.4m wide and 1.63m high. The top slab of the 14cm box girder is both the bridge deck and the roadway deck.

(3) Japan.

In 2002, Japan's first ultra-high-performance concrete pedestrian bridge, Sakata-Mirai, was completed. With the main span diameter of 49.2m, the main girder section form of the box girder, using prefabricated assembly method construction, and prefabricated girder segments using prestressing tensioning splicing completed. Since then, Japan has built several ultra high performance concrete pedestrian bridges, such as the Yamagata Bridge and Tahara Bridge, all of which use box girder cross-section as the main girder cross-section form. The first Japanese highway ultra high performance concrete bridge was the Horikoshi Highway C-ramp Fukuoka Bridge with a span of 16 m. It is interesting to note that in 2006, the lower chord of the top pushing guide beam was made of ultra high performance concrete, and a 554 m long, 11 m wide prestressed concrete box girder bridge (Torisalogawa Bridge) was completed. It was pushing construction.

(4) USA.

In 2006, the first ultra high performance concrete highway bridge in the United States was completed in Iowa - Mars Hill Bridge in 2008, another ultra high performance concrete highway bridge was completed in Virginia and Iowa, the main girders of the three bridges were I-shaped, T-shaped and π-shaped, and the main girders of ultra high performance concrete were not equipped with shear reinforcement, only using the high tensile properties of ultra high performance concrete itself, which greatly simplified the construction of the bridge. In 2009, the precast conventional concrete deck slabs of two highway bridges in New York State were connected by cast-in-place UHPC joints, and this method of connecting precast deck slabs (girders) has since been used on more and more bridges, with over 150 bridges in North America now using this connection method.

(5) China.

In 2006, China built the first ultra high performance concrete bridge (Luanbai Dry Canal Bridge) in the Qincao Railway Project, producing 12 ultra high performance concrete T-girders with a span diameter of 20m, a height of 1.35m, a height-to-span ratio of 1/14.8, and a web thickness of 18cm in the middle of the span. In 2011, for the first time, ultra high performance concrete was combined with steel box girders to form a light combination deck in Zhaoqing Mafang Bridge. The Mafang Bridge is a 14-span single-span 64m simple-supported steel box girder with a total length of 919.6m and a deck width of 12.1m, and the deck system uses orthogonal anisotropic steel panels. 1984 after the bridge was built and opened to traffic after many repairs, there is still serious damage to the pavement layer and fatigue cracks in the steel structure, the whole bridge was thoroughly repaired at the end of 2011, and to this day, the 50mm thick ultra high performance concrete layer was used to strengthen the repair of the 11th span. The 11th span is still running well. So far, China has several real bridges using steel - ultra high performance concrete light combination of the bridge deck, covering beam bridges, arch bridges, cable-stayed and suspension bridges, and other types of bridges.

These are some of the applications of ultra high performance concrete in bridge projects in various countries. If you need more detailed information, welcome to contact us!