Basis of design for high strength concrete structures

Abstract

The advances in materials and construction techniques allow now a days to easily produce high strength concrete (HSC, fck >= 50 Mpa). However, the design rules for HSC structures are not as known as those for the production of materials. In fact, there are certain differences in the physical and mechanical properties between HSC and normal strength concrete (NSC) that may require a differential treatment when designing and detailing HSC structures. In this paper, those differential properties are highlighted and their influence on the experimentally observed structural response analysed. The behaviour of HSC at the ultimate and serviceability limit states is reviewed and proposals are made to extend or modify the current formulations valid for NSC to be adequate for HSC. Finally, a number of simple examples are presented to show the applicability of the proposed design methods for HSC structures.