Living and working on water and under water with UHPC as construction material

Since than 30 years, UHPC Ultra High
Performance Concrete has been used
worldwide in the offshore sector as
a foundation, repair and construction material.
In offshore wind power technology, UHPC
is used as a floating foundation construction.

Deep sea constructions with UHPC have
also been successfully tested down to a
depth of 3500 m / 11480ft. Together with a  
German university, we tested dome 
constructions with different concrete 
qualities and UHPC. Only UHPC was able 
to withstand the enormous water pressure.

Likewise, energy storage systems for

offshore wind turbines are currently being
developed, which consist of hollow concrete
balls measuring over 30 m in diameter,
which are sunk to a depth of 300 m. These
energy storage systems would also be ideal
for supplying energy to floating cities.

Living and working on water and under water
can be realized sustainably and without an
problems with UHPC Ultra High Performance
Concrete materials.

The first serious projects are already planned
and are about to be realized. International
architect groups are already working on
self-sufficient cities above and under water.
UHPC is an important building construction
material for the designs, which are designed for
extreme longevity with very little to no
maintenance.

The advantages are

• Absolute seawater resistance
• Extreme corrosion resistance
• Extreme compressive strength
• Extreme tensile strengths
• Almost any design geometry can be made
• Material combinations of all kinds are easily possible
• Installation methode same as standard concrete

UHPC and color in architecture and design

We are repeatedly asked in which standard colors

we offer our UHPC material qualities and our
answer has always been the same for years:
We do not have any standard UHPC colors.

Why? There are millions of different colors
and color materials so why pick a few and ignore
the others.

Conversely, we would like to ask our customers:
What color or color effect do you want? Based
on the color specification of our customers, we
then develop a UHPC with this color specification.
 

UHPC can be used to create an infinite number

of surfaces or color structures that influence
natural or artificial light or paint. In the end, a
unique, special construction or design is created.

UHPC binders with their nanoparticles can also
have an interesting influence on the color particles
and their effects. There are also a wide variety of
pigment materials.

So why standard when you can have so much more?

 

 

WPE DK International

Phone: 0049 176 601 73146
E-mail: info@wpe-dk.dk
Homepage: www.wpe-dk.com

Elegant and luxury design furniture made out of UHPC

More and more designers around the world
are fascinated by concrete. It is a material
that we believe is much more sustainable
than plastic and also has a much longer
service life than plastic. Concrete is easier
and more environmentally friendly to recycle
than plastic.

Concrete can be used in all climates, even the
most extreme. For some time now, experiments
with concrete have been carried out in space.
It is a possible building material for the extreme
conditions on the moon and on Mars.

The only problem for many designers and artists is the necessary wall thickness and weight. Today, furniture is thick-walled with metal reinforcement. A simple bench without a backrest for two people can weigh up to 1500 kg for some manufacturers. Many tables, chairs, etc. have an enormous weight and cannot be moved by one person. You can not say that the previous concrete furniture is gracious and elegant, it really is not. Apparently old natural stone art elements are copied with concrete today, at least that is how they look.

The architects, designers and artists may not even have the knowledge that UHPC Ultra High Performance Concrete has beenavailable to them for several decades. A concrete material that is extremely strong
and stable but also has a non-concrete flexibility. UHPC is superior to concrete in all areas.

With a UHPC material, designer furniture can be created that was previously only available in terms of wall thickness for metals and plastics.

New concrete design

The first designers are now working with UHPC desert sand concrete. Unique one-of-a-kind pieces are made with an unprocessed natural material.

UHPC design element could be sunk in the
sea and they would remain there unchanged
until the end of time.

A bench as described above would weigh less than half of concrete with UHPC.
Surfaces of outstanding fine structures can be achieved. Art objects can be produced in an unimagined richness of detail, both large and small, up to the jewelry ring on the finger in which one or more gems are
embedded.

New concrete design

Furniture could be combined with wood,
metal or glass in a new way.
UHPC is a concrete material that can be
bent in a specific construction. 

 

 

WPE DK International

Phone: 0049 176 601 73146
E-mail: ber@wpe-dk.dk
Homepage: www.wpe-dk.com

 

Exclusive hyper white UHPC binder for design

Today, the first hyper white UHPC will be

delivered to a designer. The intention is to
create exclusive design articles out of this
hyper white UHPC.

After intensive discussions with the designer,
it soon became clear to everyone that a color
pigment solution was completely undesirable.
The material should be extremely white in its
own right and at the same time have the
processing properties of our UHPC. Likewise,

the strength should be very high approx 200 MPa

29.000 psi, since it was planned to produce very

thin and very filigree design elements. The

adhesion should also be very high since it is

planned to combine gems and precious metals

with this hyper white UHPC.

We manufacture hyper white UHPC as a one-

component material, as a binder material, as a

castable binder, as a mortar binder and as a

shotcret binder

Due to these very high requirements, we have
had to create a new UHPC recipe. As raw
materials only extremely high quality white
raw materials were used and a separate small
mixing plant was installed, which mixes only
this hyper white UHPC. It took several months
for our customer to be satisfied with the purity
of the whiteness, the workmanship and the
firmness.

We would like to point out that this UHPC
material is extremely expensive compared to
standard concrete.
Even compared to our highest quality UHPCs
this special binder is very expensive. The
delivery time is longer, because the raw material
used has lead times.

This UHPC material is made only on customer
request.

UHPC 3D printing

It is interesting to see today what printing results universities and printer manufacturers achieve.

The results are an interplay between printer technology and material technology. In my opinion today, very good results are achieved in the design areas with the printers, but many problems still have to be solved in professional architectural building construction.

There are

Compressive strength

The standard concrete reaches its maximum compressive strength after 28 days. For the printing technology unacceptable, here must be helped with accelerator. Printing speed and strength development must be matched and optimized without loss of strength.
UHPC Ultra High Performance Concrete can be a solution. Strengths of over 200 MPa can be achieved here. Already during the UHPC binder production, we can adjust the strength development, as well as the flow characteristic. The addition of commercially available additives is no longer necessary.

Print speed

Of course you want an optimum speed, you want to process a large amount / weight of concrete in a very short time. The concrete should be able to support itself after a very short time and be load-bearing for ceiling elements.
With UHPC materials, large amounts of material are already processed in a short time using the wet and dry spraying process. The consistency of the UHPC print material can be adapted to the printer characteristic. UHPC materials already develop high strength values in short time in the standard qualities. However, this time can be extremely reduced by changing material production.

Statics

The print heads are usually small in diameter and the applied wall thicknesses compared to a masonry or a finished concrete wall are very thin. Static load-bearing walls can be printed for several floors, or double-skin walls must be printed in order to achieve a structurally stable construction. Do I have to print double-shelled?

Heat / cold insulation

If I print with a standard concrete I do not achieve any insulating properties. So I have to print double-shelled and fill the cavity with insulation material or retrofit an insulating layer from the inside.
At the moment we are the only ones who are able to combine a high pressure resistant material with an insulating material. This combination material is also pumpable.

Steel girders, reinforcements

Even with 3D printing, you can not ignore reinforcements and support structures, or you can remain eternally restricted to small, simple and low-rise building constructions. How can I optimally combine carrier structures, steel reinforcements with a single printing process?

Last but not least interesting design

So far I have seen the obligatory pressure bulges on all prints. For the beginning, this may be fine but soon you should have printing technologies that ensures a sharp-edged pressure even on the wall corners. A rework of the walls in the flat areas to get is cost and time consuming. Of course, when I use the printing technology, I also want to print exceptional geometry and thin-walled constructions.

I have a note at the end

If all my misgivings can be wiped out the question remains if I want to print a large building, I need a fairly large printer technology which is not even built and dismantled and I need a very fast continuous flow of material to the printer when the printer should work quickly.

I do not want to know misunderstood. I think 3D printer technology is very interesting for the future and I know that some engineering companies are working on technical solutions. As part of our material development, we also work on a flexible, extreme fast-curing, high-compressive strength material for the printer producer. In close technical agreement with the respective printer manufacturer, we can adapt our UHPC materials to the requirements and provide test material to the printer manufacturer.

UHPC® Architecture on the sea coast

The big cities on the coasts and rivers have

big problems for the future. A problem is the 
lack of natural space for the permanent 
expansion of cities. Building ever higher 
skyscrapers is not a solution in the long run. 
One solution is to expand the construction 
site by adding fillings in the coastal area, 
as we see in Dubai and Singapore, among 
others. Another solution to the problem is 
the very old traditional construction of pile 
dwellings and houseboats, as they have 
always done in Asia.

Modern architecture has been thinking 
about its designs for a long time with interesting 
designs and projects about future life in coastal 
and river areas. Here, the old living concepts 
are reinterpreted. New materials such as 
UHPC® concretes can easily incorporate 
existing local living concepts and constructions 
and implement them in permanent concepts. 
UHPC® offers absolute seawater resistance with 
extremely high strength. Light, thin but 
high-strength constructions can be combined 
with local traditional materials such as bamboo.

Floating residential and industrial concepts can 
also be realized with UHPC®, and not just above 
water. The first underwater concepts have 
already been implemented worldwide with new 
hotel concepts. Recent plans also include 
entire artificial islands on which hospitals, 
workshops, hotels, kindergartens, residential 
complexes including leisure facilities are built.
Some international architecture firms are 
interested in using UHPC® Ultra High 
Performance Concrete in their living concepts, 
because the advantages of this material are 
unique in their variety and quality.

UHPC® offshore constructions are already in 
use in areas with extreme environmental 
conditions. UHPC® is very wear-resistant, 
among other things, moving ice masses is 
not a real problem for a UHPC® construction. 
UHPC® materials have no pores, are therefore 
extremely corrosion-resistant and offer an 
extremely long repair-free service life.


www.hhbc-consulting.de
info@hhbc-consulting.de

Renovation of buildings and monuments whether new or antique with UHPC®

UHPC® materials have many advantages over
other materials in the rehabilitation of buildings
whether new or antique, historic or monuments.
The biggest advantage is probably its enormous
adaptability to the existing building fabric.

- UHPC® materials can improve the load
   bearing capacity or decide on a structural
   design that is under attack.

- UHPC® material can be applied thinly to
   protect the existing construction against all
   kinds of environmental influences over a
   very long period of time.

- Since UHPC® materials can be mixed very well
   with a variety of materials, whether new or
   antique, replicas can be created which have a
   higher resistance and bearing capacity than the
   original ones.

- Most natural stones and their structure could be
   copied with UHPC®. The copies can be given the
   structure by the casting mold or subsequently
   processed or polished like a natural stone.

- UHPC® materials that can achieve
   extremely fine and accurate structures can
   achieve absolutely identical replicas with a
   correspondingly high mold quality.

- Similarly, old facades can be repaired and
   completely replaced as a copy of the original 
   catch, but in a much thinner plate thickness
   than the originals so that there is still enough
   space for modern insulation in the most cases.

- Due to the very good flow properties, joints
   and cracks can be filled without extensive
   preparatory work.

- There is no need for special tools to use UHPC®
   material.

- UHPC® can use as mortar, cast or spray
   material.

www.hhbc-consulting.de
info@hhbc-consulting.de

Special UHPC materials are virtually the bridge material of the future

Bridges are among the oldest, most important and most prominent construction tasks of humanity. For a long time, bridge construction was mainly characterised by functional criteria, but nowadays more and more attention is paid to visual appearance. Highly developed building technologies can be used to create exciting, previously unimaginable constructions.


Several characteristics of UHPC make it a desirable construction materials. With increased compressive (more than 200 MPa) and tensile 
strengths, the material lends itself well to 
structural applications by allowing higher loads 
to be supported. By utilising the higher strengths, 
traditional structural components can also be 
reduced in size and weigth.
Another benefit of UHPC is the high density and
none porosity of the material making it essentially 
impermeable to water and chlorides, thus making 
the material highly durable. Both characteristics 
also make UHPC attractive in areas of high impact 
and where water or chloride ions can corrode steel 
reinforcement. 

Advantages

• High compressive strength
• Fast development of compressive strength
• High wear and impact resistant
• Absolute frost and thaw resistant
• Impermeable to fluids but still vapour permeable
• Anti corrosive features
• Good bonding to sub-bases, aggregates and reinforcement
• High temperature resistant
• Fast curing
• Sort repair stops
• Jointless lining

Elements of a bridge that can be executed with UHPC

• Bridge foundation 
• Bridge bearings
• Bridge supports
• Bridge deck and bridge deck pavement
• Prestressed concrete foundation 

www.hhbc-consulting.de
info@hhbc-consulting.de