UHPC's World

As a pioneer in Ultra High Performance Concrete (UHPC), Lafarge worked closely with Bouygues in the early 90's to explore new possibilities in advanced concrete technologies. At the end of the 90's, ten years of research produced a completely innovative material offering technological performances that had never been seen before.

At the forefront of the growth in UHPC use, Ductal® has very specific properties, the foremost being its ductility, one of the reasons that sets Ductal® apart from conventional concrete. Its unique set of tunable ultra high performance characteristics free people from the constraints of traditional solutions.
Lafarge engineering expertise and partnerships with architects, designers, design offices and precasters, have enabled the development of a great many uses. Today we can demonstrate Ductal®'s unequalled resistance and longevity properties.

Ductal® has been deployed on a vast array of projects in the construction sector, yet also in industry, urban furniture, decoration, etc. Over a decade of use of this construction material has enabled Lafarge teams to develop unique levels of experience and know-how. Rigorous testing and field trials, have given it the most experience of all materials of this kind.

This expertise is also confirmed by several official documents in the United States, Canada, France and Japan that prescribe the use of Ductal® for building, infrastructure, manufacturing, artistic and industrial designs. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in USA has been assessing the properties of this material since 2002: Federal Highways Administration (FHWA in the USA) references:

In France: Ductal®'s technical characteristics have been fully examined through a technical evaluation by the CSTB (French Scientific and Technical Center for Construction) and the "Provisional UHPFRC Recommendations" issued by SETRA/AFGC (SETRA = French authorities of civil engineering structure design and control; AFGC = French association of civil engineering).

Similar recommendations have been published in Japan and Australia.