In all the constructions, the prime construction material is concrete in its different forms. The sky scrapers demand larger sections of columns and beams with conventional concrete. This reduces the carpet area per floor and increase in the depth of the beams reduces the number of floors that can be accommodated height of the building. The type and the amount of materials used in construction projects along with their environmental impacts are reviewed. The results reveal that concrete, steel reinforcement, aluminium, copper, ceramic tile are the five most predominant materials in terms of environmental impact in the urban buildings. To overcome this huge environmental impact of concrete, M N Ramesh, Managing Director, Talrak Construction Chemicals Pvt. Ltd said, “The obvious route is to reduce the use of this material. These issues are addressed with Ultra High-Performance Concrete (UHPC). Use of UHPC in buildings, reduces the cross-sectional dimensions of the structural members thereby getting a larger carpet area and more floors per height of buildings due to reduced depth of beams and slabs. In infrastructure projects like long span bridges, flyovers, metro-rail viaducts, reduction of sectional dimensions of the girders and piers has become possible.”

He adds “The overall dead weight of all structures built with UHPC is much less as compared to that built with conventional concrete. This enables optimising the foundations requirements and achieving the overall economy of construction. Due to use of less volume of concrete, UHPC contributes to achieve sustainability in construction.”

Talrakrete Ultra Drymix
Talrak Construction Chemicals has introduced the factory produced UHPC. It addresses all the challenges that are faced by the site produced UHPC. It is designed on an optimum particle packing density concept employing nano technology, by selecting a right blend of particle sizes (from Nano to Macro) of all components such as binders, strength and quality enhancing additives, admixtures, fillers etc. Talrakrete Ultra Drymix is supplied in bags, which just needs addition of specified quantity of water and coarse aggregates (optional) to specifications to get a UHPC mix of 100 MPa and above cube compressive strength in 28 days. The product being factory produced under a strict QA / QC environment, the consistency in the quality and strength are guaranteed. The anomalies of site batched concrete are eliminated as Talrakrete Ultra Drymix is pre- batched and pre-packed in hermetically sealed bags. The need for site addition of crucial constituent materials such as cement, high-performance admixtures and graded fillers, is obviated in Talrakrete Ultra Drymix, which play a very important role in achieving strength and quality consistency.

Features of UHPC
• High strength up to 350 MPa
• High flexural strength up to 75MPa
• High tensile strength
• High thermal resistance
• High thermal isolation
• Workability is adjustable (fast hardening – extreme fluid)
• Low carbon footprint
• Local raw materials

Potential application areas of UHPC
UHPC can be used in any type of construction right from simple buildings to various structures
• Pre-cast building industry
• Facade systems
• Interior – exterior design
• Product design
• 3D Printer technologies
• Bridges and highways
• Machine foundations
• Concrete furniture
• Spatial structures
• Plates and shell structures.