Autogenous shrinkage of self-compacting ultra-high performance concrete(UHPC)

In this paper the autogenous shrinkage and internal relative humidity of Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) was studied. Experiments were carried out on self-compacting UHPC containing different silica fume contents and water-cement-ratios (w/c). Results showed, that in UHPC with a low w/c or high silica fume content a higher autogenous shrinkage than UHPC with a high w/c or low silica fume content could be observed. But the difference was not significant. All UHPC exhibited a much higher autogenous shrinkage than conventional HPC, which could be resulted from the higher paste volume in UHPC and the volume contracting effect of pozzolanic reaction. The internal relative humidity in UHPC was similar as that in HPC, so no more intensive self-desiccation took place in UHPC.