ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Construction Materials
Volume 11 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2025.1570920
Full-scale Production and Material Properties of Ultra-High-Performance Fiber-Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) for Rehabilitation of Bridge Decks in Norway
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Engineering Sciences, University of Agder, Grimstad, Norway
- 2Unicon AS, Norway, Oslo, Norway
- 3Department of Structural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Sør-Trøndelag, Norway
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This paper is a presentation of an investigation into the suitability of locally produced ultra-highperformance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) for the rehabilitation of deteriorated concrete bridge decks in Norway. Full-scale production was conducted at a conventional ready-mix concrete plant using mostly locally available materials from silos at the plant. Material properties relevant for bridge deck rehabilitation were investigated, including compressive strength, residual flexural strength, E-modulus, shrinkage, and resistance to chloride ion penetration. These results were compared to earlier experiences at laboratory scale.The findings indicate that full-scale production of UHPFRC with locally available constituents is achievable using common facilities for ready-mixed concrete, including mixing, transportation, and pumping in quantities appropriate for industrialized bridge deck rehabilitation. The applied UHPFRC mix design was found suitable for bridge rehabilitation, considering compressive and flexural strength, shrinkage, and durability evaluated by resistance against chloride migration. Up to approximately 3 vol.% of micro steel fibers (225 kg/m 3 ) were stepwise added, achieving a castable and self-leveling UHPFRC mix. Self-leveling mixes are not suitable for applications in slopes, which are common for bridge decks. Adjustments to the mix design are necessary to achieve thixotropy. Some additional material properties remain to be evaluated, such as the bond between the old concrete substrate and the new UHPFRC layer. This is being investigated in the next stage of the project.
Keywords: Bridge rehabilitation, UHPFRC, UHPC, Local materials, Full-scale production, Material Properties
Received: 04 Feb 2025; Accepted: 28 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lande, Thorstensen, Petersen and Kanstad. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ingrid Lande, Department of Engineering Sciences, University of Agder, Grimstad, Norway
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.