Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) is an emerging material in the concrete industry. It has a compressive strength 2 to 3 times greater than High Performance Concrete (HPC) and a flexural strength 2 to 6 times greater. These mechanical properties of UHPC make it ideal for prestressing applications. Before UHPC can be used in a prestressing application, bond performance between the UHPC and the prestressing strands is one of the behaviors that need to be studied further.
Standard half-inch prestressing strands and half-inch oversized strands were cast into UHPC blocks with varying embedment depths. Strands were also cast into a conventional concrete block to serve as the control. Pull-out tests were performed while instrumentation measured the displacement occurring in the strands and the load being applied to the strands. The results showed that the UHPC displayed superior bond performance as compared with the conventional concrete.