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4.2.5 Applications and perspectives

A nanotechnological improved concrete such as UHPC may be used for all kind of buildings in the future. The main benefit is seen in the reduction of raw material and the possibility to build lightweight structures with superior stability and durability. Especially the construction of lightweight bridges has been investigated intensively in recent years. Several bridges made of UHPC have been built so far:

• Sherbrooke Footbridge, Kanada, 1997
• Seonyu Footbridge, Seoul, Korea, 2002
• Sakata-Mirai Footbridge, Japan, 2004
• Gärtnerplatz Footbridge, Kassel, Germany, 2007

Fig. 2: "Gärtnerplatz" footbridge made of ultra-high performance concrete reinforced by steel fibres. University of Kassel.

Besides bridges UHPC has already been used for different building part such as roofs, facade elements and storage silos. Even completely different application purposes such as furniture and carbon nanotube reinforced concrete canoes have been reported [^XIII].

UHPC concrete has also been investigated as replacement for steel in retaining walls. The advantage of UHPC in comparison with steel is the costs when calculated over the whole life cycle of the structure [^XIV].