Development of New Materials for Prefabricated Concrete Elements for Building Construction in Tropical Climatic Conditions

This paper presents the development of new concrete mixtures, which constitutes prefabricated elements for building constructions in tropical conditions in Gabon (Africa). The Client from Gabon required prefabricated buildings fabricated overseas (in Serbia) and assembled at the site (Okolassi, Gabon). The main problem was to achieve sufficient strength and resistance of finishing material, with small weight. New material was developed in order to satisfy the following conditions: low unit weight, high compressive/tensile strength, low shrinkage, reduced spalling, resistance to high temperatures and moisture. The main need for development of these new concrete mixtures lies in characteristics of designed prefabricated concrete elements, with the following main properties: a) concrete panels, with dimensions 240-360 cm (length), 110 cm (height), and 20 cm (width); b) panels should weigh up to 100 kg/pc, but sound and robust, so surface must be casted of ultra-high-performance concrete, while the inner part of the element should have smaller unit weight. New concrete mixtures with the required properties were designed on the basis of the extensive laboratory analysis. Concrete specimens were prepared using the materials available at the market and tested. Testing results were further analysed in order to derive convenient mathematical models for the target concrete properties. The results of this analysis were new concrete mixtures, prepared according to the derived models, to be used for construction of prefabricated concrete panels.

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