ABSTRACT
It must be admitted that up to the present time, progress in the field of high-performance concrete has been the fruit of an empirical approach rather than a fundamental and scientific one. As has often been the case in concrete technology, advances in practice have proceeded thorough scientific investigations. Moreover, at the present time, it is possible to explain the better performance of high-performance concrete on the basis of principles that can be scientifically supported, although it is not yet possible to explain every aspect of high-performance concrete in minute detail. As a consequence, it will be seen in Chapter 7 that the selection of concrete-making materials, and in Chapter 8 that mix proportions, are no longer governed by pure empiricism, but that it is possible to follow practical guidelines in order to avoid starting over.
