On March 3rd, the first China UHPC Technology Development & Innovation Application Conference sponsored by the Super High-Performance Cement-Based Materials and Engineering Technology Branch of China Concrete & Cement-based Products Association (CCPA-UHPC for short) was held in Foshan, Guangdong Province. The conference was themed as “New standards, new technologies and new applications promote new development, and UHPC builds a beautiful China”.

Xu Yongmo, former president of China Concrete & Cement-based Products Association, executive director of CCPA-UHPC, Zhang Guozhi, deputy chief engineer of CCCC Second Harbor Engineering Company, Ltd. and other representatives of co-organizers, as well as more than 600 experts, scholars, entrepreneurs and technicians from design institutes, construction units, raw materials and equipment enterprises, product enterprises, scientific research institutes and universities of more than 20 provinces, cities and autonomous regions attended the meeting.

◆Opening Ceremony◆

As a representative of the supporting unit of the conference, Chen Guanxiong, technical consultant of Guangdong Provincial Department of Transportation and director of the expert committee of Guangdong Province Highway Society, was invited to attend the opening ceremony. In his speech, he said that UHPC, as a popular new building material in China and even in the world, has been widely used in the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta.

In his opening speech, Xu Yongmo, former president of China Concrete & Cement-based Products Association, first thanked all the experts and representatives for sharing their innovative achievements at the UHPC Industry Conference. He proposed and expected that although UHPC originated in Europe, it must be developed in China, which is the mission and responsibility of concrete materials and engineering technicians in China. China should make recognized contributions to the innovation and development of concrete materials science and engineering technology. In terms of engineering application, the huge construction projects in China provide opportunities for trial and error and iteration for the innovative development of UHPC, and the UHPC engineering applications which will create more "first" and "largest" will be produced in China in the future.

◆ Keynote speech ◆ 

On the morning of March 3rd, five experts were invited to give a keynote speech at the conference. Shao Xudong, a professor at Hunan University and director of the Institute of Bridge Engineering, gave a report entitled “The Bottom Logic, Standardization and Guangdong Exploration of UHPC Bridge R&D”.

Huang Zhengyu, a professor at Hunan University and chairman of the board of Hunan Guli Engineering New Materials Company, 

gave a report entitled “Rethinking the Development and Innovation of UHPC”.

Bai Qi’an, Dean of Architectural Curtain Wall Design Branch of Architectural Design and Research Institute of Zhejiang University, 

gave a report entitled “Present Situation and Future of UHPC in Curtain Wall Field”.

Sun Zhou, Director of Architectural Curtain Design Consulting Center of China Architectural Design & Research Group, 

gave a report entitled “Concrete Structure and Concrete Building-Prefabricated Skin of Elegant Building”.

Sun Xiangdong, chief engineer of Guangdong Communication Planning & Design Institute, 

gave a report entitled “Research and Engineering Application Practice of UHPC Beam Bridges”.

◆Special Report◆

In the afternoon of March 3rd, nine experts made special reports from different perspectives. Fan Jiansheng, Professor of Department of Civil Engineering and Director of Institute of Structural Engineering, Tsinghua University, reported on “Progress of Research and Application of UHPC Structures in Housing Buildings”.

Wang Hongbo, deputy chief engineer of Shandong Provincial Communications Planning and Design Institute, 

gave a report entitled “Application of Ultra-high Performance Concrete (UHPC) in Zhanhua-Linzi Highway Yellow River Bridge”.

Xu Dapeng, deputy chief engineer of Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design Institute, 

gave a report entitled “Discussion on the Application of UHPC in Prefabricated Water Treatment Project”.

Ji Xiankun, chief engineer of Wuhan Ujoin Building Materials Technology Co., Ltd., 

gave a report entitled “Research on shrinkage control technology of ultra-high performance concrete”.

Shao Xiaodong, deputy general manager and chief engineer of Zhejiang Tenacal New Materials Technology Co., Ltd., 

gave a report entitled “Discussion on UHPC Product Delivery Standards”.

Tian Yueqiang, chief engineer of Zhongluxincai (Guangzhou) technology Co., Ltd., 

gave a report entitled “application exploration of ultra-high performance concrete in new structure and old bridge reconstruction”.

Zhang Jun, Director of Special Project Sales and Products of Xuzhou Liebherr Concrete Machinery Co., Ltd., 

gave a report entitled “Study on Mixing and Dispersion Characteristics of Ultra-high Performance Concrete (UHPC)”.

Hui Chao, Managing Director and Vice President of Zhongzhu Holding Group, 

gave a report entitled "SIID—UHPC Industrial Convergence Driver of Zhongzhu Holding Group".

Wang Hongsheng, technical consulting engineer of UHPC in Aalborg Porland(Anqing) Co., Ltd., 

gave a report entitled "A New Generation of Sustainable Ultra-high Performance Concrete and Its Application".

◆ “Salute to Mr.Hans Henrik Bache”theme activity ◆

Mr. Bach from Aalborg Portland, Denmark is the inventor of ultra-high performance concrete and the founder of engineering application. The academic and industrial circles don't know much about Mr. Bache's pioneering work. Today, his theory and concept are still not out of date, which still has a good guiding role and reference value for us to broaden our horizons and explore future development. With the support and assistance of Aalborg Porland(Anqing) Co., Ltd., and with the permission of the unit where Bache used to work, the sustainability and R&D center of Cementir Group, the conference specially planned and organized the theme activity “Salute to Mr.Hans Henrik Bache”. Professor Lu Xinying of Tsinghua University and Secretary General Zhao Jun of CCPA-UHPC spent a lot of time and energy to translate the precious technical data "Ny Beton–Ny Teknologi" left by Mr. Bach into Chinese as the technical information of the General Assembly.

Mr. Bendt Aarup, R&D Manager of Hi-Con Group in Denmark, Ms. Trine Staanum, Head of R&D Department of Sament Group, Mr. Peter Buitelaar, technical consultant of UHPC in the Netherlands, and Professor Eugen Brühwiler of Swiss federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne,  recorded wonderful videos for this commemorative event.

Zhao Jun, Secretary-General of CCPA-UHPC, made a detailed interpretation of the technical contents 

of "New Concrete-New Technology" to the delegates.

Li Zhiling, Deputy Secretary-General of CCPA and Director of the Center for International Cooperation, 

presided over the theme activity of “Salute to Mr. Hans Henrik Bache”.

The opening ceremony of the conference and the full-day technical report were presided over by four experts,

 including Secretary-General Zhao Jun of CCPA-UHPC, 

Professor Wu Xiangguo of Harbin Institute of Technology, 

Professor Huang Zhengyu of Hunan University and Professor Fang Zhi.

After the all-day conference, a dinner party themed “Night of Aalborg Porland” was held, 

where experts and representatives gathered and  enhanced their friendship and cooperation.