Special Design Considerations For Precast Prestressed Hollow Core Floors

The former FIP Commission Prefabrication drafted the FIP Recommendations on the design of Precast prestressed hollow core floors, published by FIP in 1988 (Telford, London, ISBN 0-7277-1375-2). That document was highly appreciated by designers and public authorities because of the lack of guidance available elsewhere, especially with respect to some specific features of the product, for example the absence of transverse reinforcement. It has also served as a reference guide for national standards and especially for the CEN product standard on prestressed hollow core slabs. During the production of that report it was felt that some design rules were incomplete or missing. In addition, research carried out since has resulted in complementary knowledge on the behaviour of hollow core floors, for example in combination with slender floor beams. The present guide to good practice is intended to complement the existing recommendations. The research for the different items was carried out at Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), Politecnico di Torino (Italy), VTT (Finland), University of Nottingham (United Kingdom), Building Research Institute (Poland), and the University of Rome (Italy).

These recommendations, together with a detailed commentary, are the result of nine years' intensive research. They provide the engineer and precaster with a guide to sound design and put at their disposal calculation methods and examples of good practice for the many details of the design of hollow core floors.

This guide to precast prestressed concrete (PSC) introduces and applies principles for the design of PSC slabs, thermal slabs, beam and block flooring and main beams, including (where appropriate) cantilevers, and composite and continuous construction. The book provides numerous worked examples for a wide range of PSC elements and covers the innovative use of PSC on several projects in the UK over the past ten years, drawing on the authors' first-hand experience in the design and manufacture of special products. The contents are in line with latest revisions of the Eurocodes and European Product Standards. Precast Prestressed Concrete for Building Structures is ideal for consulting structural engineers, clients, PSC manufacturers, and advanced undergraduate and graduate students, both as a guide and a textbook.

This book presents the proceedings of the fib Symposium “Building for the future: Durable, Sustainable, Resilient”, held in Istanbul, Turkey, on 5–7 June 2023. The book covers topics such as concrete and innovative materials, structural performance and design, construction methods and management, and outstanding structures. fib (The International Federation for Structural Concrete) is a not-for-profit association whose mission is to develop at an international level the study of scientific and practical matters capable of advancing the technical, economic, aesthetic, and environmental performance of concrete construction.

In 1994 fib Commission 6: Prefabrication edited a successful Planning and Design Handbook that ran to approximately 45,000 copies and was published in Spanish and German. Nearly 20 years later Bulletin 74 brings that first publication up to date. It offers a synthesis of the latest structural design knowledge about precast building structures against the background of 21st century technological innovations in materials, production and construction. With it, we hope to help architects and engineers achieve a full understanding of precast concrete building structures, the possibilities they offer and their specific design philosophy. It was principally written for non-seismic structures. The handbook contains eleven chapters, each dealing with a specific aspect of precast building structures. The first chapter of the handbook highlights best practice opportunities that will enable architects, design engineers and contractors to work together towards finding efficient solutions, which is something unique to precast concrete buildings. The second chapter offers basic design recommendations that take into account the possibilities, restrictions and advantages of precast concrete, along with its detailing, manufacture, transport, erection and serviceability stages. Chapter three describes the precast solutions for the most common types of buildings such as offices, sports stadiums, residential buildings, hotels, industrial warehouses and car parks. Different application possibilities are explored to teach us which types of precast units are commonly used in all those situations. Chapter four covers the basic design principles and systems related to stability. Precast concrete structures should be designed according to a specific stability concept, unlike cast in-situ structures. Chapter five discusses structural connections. Chapters six to nine address the four most commonly used systems or subsystems of precast concrete in buildings, namely, portal and skeletal structures, wall-frame structures, floor and roof structures and architectural concrete facades. In chapter ten the design and detailing of a number of specific construction details in precast elements are discussed, for example, supports, corbels, openings and cutouts in the units, special features related to the detailing of the reinforcement, and so forth. Chapter eleven gives guidelines for the fire design of precast concrete structures. The handbook concludes with a list of references to good literature on precast concrete construction.

Connections are among the most essential parts in precast structures. Their performance relates to the structural limit states, as well as to manufacture of the precast elements and erection and maintenance of the structure itself. Proper design of connections is one major key to a successful prefabrication. The principal aim of fib Bulletin 43 is to encourage good practice in the design of structural connections in precast concrete structures. This is achieved through a good understanding of structural connections as parts of the overall structural system and of basic force transferring mechanisms. The bulletin consists of two parts; the first part concerns general considerations and philosophy in the design of structural connections, and the second part deals with basic force transferring mechanisms within structural connections. The main focus is on the design of structural connections with regard to their structural function in ordinary design situations in the serviceability and ultimate limit states, and in accidental/abnormal design situations, like fire, lack of fit and impact/accidental loads. Other aspects considered include production, handling and site erection of elements, building physics, durability and maintenance. Bulletin 43 applies to structural connections for precast concrete buildings, although the information on basic force transfer mechanisms can also be applicable to other types of prefabricated structures.