Title: Retrofitting Concrete Beams with Eco-Friendly UHFRC Panels

Author(s): Mancinelli

Publication: Web Session

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Date: 3/28/2022

Abstract:
As the young Törless of the Musil’s Novel, young students working on UHPC are frequently disoriented by the great performances and, contemporarily, by the challenges in applying this material in current constructions. Both the frustration of setbacks and the proudness of successes appear in the experiences of two Ph.D. students at Politecnico di Torino. Experience #1: Oscar Mancinelli performed an experimental campaign at the Life Cycle Engineering Laboratory of Tohoku University (Japan). The aim was the introduction of a new method for retrofitting existing beams with precast UHP-FRCC panels. Either mistakes in dosing the components, or small changes in the boundary conditions (e.g., curing temperature) led to disastrous results, after days of hard work. On the other hand, due to the amazing malleability of this material, high performance thin elements were obtained. This has spurred Oscar’s curiosity, who expanded the tests beyond the research goals.