Alfred Steinle & Mathias Tillmann 
Precast Concrete Structures [EPUB ebook] 

Introduction 1

References 16

1 General 17

1.1 The Advantages of Factory Production 17

1.2 Historical Development 19

1.3 European Standardisation 21

References 29

2 Design of Precast Concrete Structures 31

2.1 General 31

2.2 Tolerances and Calculations for Fit 35

2.2.1 General 35

2.2.2 Tolerance Standards 36

2.2.3 Calculations for Fit 40

2.3 Production 42

2.4 Transport and Erection 46

2.4.1 General 46

2.4.2 Transport 48

2.4.3 Erection 51

2.5 Sustainability 53

2.6 Design Examples 54

References 57

3 Stability of Precast Concrete Structures 59

3.1 General 59

3.2 Loads on Stability Components 59

3.2.1 General 59

3.2.2 Wind Load Case 60

3.2.3 Out-of-Plumb Load Case 63

3.2.4 Seismic Load Case 64

3.2.5 Restraint Load Case (Shrinkage and Temperature) 69

3.3 Shear Walls for Stability 70

3.3.1 Typical Stability Elements 70

3.3.2 Arrangement of Stability Elements 74

3.4 Distribution of Horizontal Loads 80

3.4.1 General Procedure 80

3.4.2 Equations for Rough Preliminary Design 81

3.5 Analysis of Stability Components 84

3.6 Construction Details 86

3.6.1 Floor Diaphragms 86

3.6.2 Shear Walls 86

References 88

4 Precast Concrete Elements 91

4.1 General 91

4.2 Floor and Roof Elements 91

4.2.1 General 91

4.2.2 Solid Slabs 91

4.2.3 Hollow-Core Slabs 91

4.2.4 Precast Floor Plates With In Situ Concrete Topping 95

4.2.5 Ribbed Elements 98

4.2.6 Other Floor Systems 100

4.3 Beams 101

4.3.1 Purlins, Frame Beams, Downstand Beams 101

4.3.2 Roof Beams 101

4.4 Columns 103

4.5 Walls 109

4.5.1 General 109

4.5.2 Precast Concrete Wall Elements 109

4.6 Foundations 111

4.6.1 General 111

4.6.2 Monolithic Foundations 111

4.6.3 Pocket and Pad Foundations 114

4.6.4 Other Types of Foundation 118

References 119

5 Connections for Precast Concrete Construction 123

5.1 General 123

5.2 Purlin Supports 124

5.3 Roof Beam Supports 125

5.4 Floor Slab Supports 126

5.4.1 Ribbed Elements 126

5.4.2 Prestressed Hollow-Core Slabs 128

5.5 Downstand Beam Supports 128

5.6 Wall Element Supports 130

5.7 Balcony Slabs 133

5.8 Stair Supports 134

5.9 Column/Foundation 135

References 137

6 Individual Design Issues 139

6.1 General 139

6.2 Partially Loaded Areas 139

6.3 Supports 140

6.3.1 General 140

6.3.2 Elastomeric Bearings 141

6.3.3 Technical Codes of Practice for Elastomeric Bearings 143

6.3.4 Design Methods for Elastomeric Bearings 144

6.3.5 Horizontal Forces 145

6.3.6 Sizing the Bearing 146

6.3.7 Design of and Details for Supports 147

6.4 Column Butt Joints 151

6.4.1 General 151

6.4.2 Column Butt Joints with Bed of Grout (Hard Support) 152

6.4.3 Column Butt Joints with Deformable Joint Materials 155

6.4.4 Rigid Joints 156

6.4.5 Column Joints with High-Strength Steel Reinforcement 156

6.5 Wall/Floor Connections 160

6.6 Shear Dowels 161

6.6.1 General 161

6.6.2 Large Edge Distances a|| ≥8∅B or a⟂ ≥8∅B 163

6.6.3 Small Edge Distances a|| <8∅B or a⟂ <8∅B 164

6.6.4 Further Advice Concerning Shear Dowels 165

6.7 Welded Connections 166

6.8 Bolted Connections and Screw Couplers 171

6.9 Other Forms of Connection 173

6.10 Transport Anchors 173

6.10.1 General 173

6.10.2 Actions 174

6.10.3 Determining the Permissible Ultimate Resistance 176

6.10.4 Further Advice for Design 178

6.10.5 Consequences of the ‘Machinery Directive’ 179

6.10.6 Incompatibility of Transport Anchor Systems 179

6.11 Shear at the Interface Between Concrete Cast at Different Times 180

6.11.1 General 180

6.11.2 Design 180

6.11.3 Surface Categories 184

6.11.4 Construction Details 186

6.11.5 Fatigue 187

6.12 Floor Diaphragms and Shear Walls 188

6.12.1 General 188

6.12.2 Floor Diaphragms 189

6.12.3 Shear Walls 192

6.12.4 Miscellaneous 195

6.13 Shear Forces in Floor Elements 195

6.14 Half Joints 200

6.14.1 General 200

6.14.2 Design 200

6.15 Corbels 204

6.15.1 General 204

6.15.2 Design 205

6.15.3 Construction Details 213

6.15.4 Beam Nibs 214

6.15.5 Retrofitted Corbels 215

6.16 Analysis of Lateral Buckling 217

6.16.1 General 217

6.16.2 Simplified Lateral Buckling Analysis 217

6.16.3 Numerical Analysis 218

6.16.4 Analysis of Supports 226

6.17 Design for Fire 228

6.17.1 General 228

6.17.2 Principles of Design for Fire 229

6.17.3 Reinforced and Prestressed Concrete Beams 233

6.17.4 Reinforced Concrete Columns 234

6.17.5 Reinforced Non-Braced Columns 237

6.17.6 Fire Walls 237

6.17.7 Plaster and Render Finishes 238

6.17.8 Junctions, Joints, and Connections 238

6.18 Pretensioning 242

6.18.1 General 242

6.18.2 Concrete Cover 243

6.18.3 Level of Prestress 243

6.18.4 Loss of Prestress 244

6.18.5 Decompression 246

6.18.6 Stress Limitation 247

6.18.7 Transferring and Anchoring the Prestress 247

6.18.8 Tensile Splitting Forces and end Face Tension 249

References 252

7 Precast Concrete Façades 257

7.1 General 257

7.2 Conceptual Design 257

7.3 Surface Finishes 260

7.3.1 General 260

7.3.2 Surface Finishes Produced by the Moulds 261

7.3.3 Concrete Surface Treatments 261

7.3.4 Weathering Behaviour 263

7.4 Joint Waterproofing 266

7.5 Concrete Sandwich Panels 268

7.5.1 General 268

7.5.2 Dimensions and Leaf Thicknesses 268

7.5.3 Connectors 269

7.5.4 Actions 273

7.5.5 Design 278

7.5.6 Deformations 281

7.5.7 Cracking 281

7.5.8 Construction Details 282

7.6 Suspended Façade Panels 284

7.6.1 Large-Format, Suspended Façade Panels 284

7.6.2 Small-Format, Suspended Façade Panels 287

7.7 Further Developments for Concrete Façades 289

7.7.1 Textile-Reinforced Concrete 289

7.7.2 Photoconcrete 290

7.7.3 Translucent Concrete 290

7.7.4 Concrete with Glass Aggregate 290

7.7.5 Glass–Concrete Composite 292

7.8 Building Physics 292

7.8.1 Energy Considerations and Thermal Performance 292

7.8.2 Moisture Control 300

7.9 Examples 300

7.9.1 Züblin House 300

7.9.2 Community Centre in Mannheim 302

7.9.3 Ohligsmühle Office Building 302

7.9.4 Tour Total 303

7.9.5 ROC Mondriaan in The Hague 305

References 306

8 Production 311

8.1 Production Methods 311

8.1.1 General 311

8.1.2 Production Using Fixed Moulds 311

8.1.3 Pallet Circulation Systems 315

8.2 Concretes for Precast Concrete Elements 317

8.2.1 General 317

8.2.2 Fresh Concretes 320

8.2.3 Hardened Concretes 321

8.2.4 Ultra-High Performance Concretes 322

8.2.5 Self-compacting Concretes 324

8.2.6 Fibre-Reinforced Concretes 326

8.3 Heat Treatment and Curing 327

8.4 Reinforcement 329

8.4.1 General 329

8.4.2 Materials 330

8.4.3 Reinforcement Drawings 330

8.4.4 Bending and Assembling Reinforcement 332

8.5 Pretensioning in Prestressing Beds 334

8.5.1 General 334

8.5.2 Materials 335

8.5.3 Construction Documents 335

8.5.4 Production 338

8.6 Quality Assurance 342

8.6.1 General 342

8.6.2 Factory Production Control 342

8.6.3 External Monitoring 344

8.6.4 Certification and Labelling 344

References 345

Index 351

Alfred Steinle (1936-2017) turned the lecture notes of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Volker Hahn, which dated from the early 1970s, into a manuscript that became the starting point for this book. After a number of years in bridge-building, Alfred Steinle also became heavily involved in precast concrete construction at Züblin. His theoretical work covered bridge-building with torsion and section deformations in box-girder bridges and in precast concrete structures within the scope of the 6M system with corbels, notched beam ends and pocket foundations. In addition, he was a key figure in many precast concrete projects such as the 6M schools, the University of Riyadh, schools with foamed concrete wall panels in Iraq, Züblin House and the construction of a modern automated precasting plant. Alfred Steinle retired in 1999 and by that time he had risen to the post of authorised signatory in the engineering office at Züblin’s head office.

Hubert Bachmann (b. 1959) began his career in a precasting plant in 1976 as an apprentice for concrete and precast concrete construction. After studying structural engineering and completing his doctorate at the University of Karlsruhe, he accepted a post in the structural engineering office of Ed. Züblin AG in Stuttgart in 1993, where he has worked ever since. His duties have included the detailed design of structures of all kinds plus research and development in the civil and structural engineering sectors. He has been presenting the series of Hahn lectures on precast concrete structures at the University of Stuttgart since 2003.

Mathias Tillmann (b. 1970) has been an engineering and standards consultant at Fachvereinigung Deutscher Betonfertigteilbau e.V. (FDB) since 2007 and technical director since 2008. He specialised in structural engineering during his studies at RWTH Aachen University. After attaining his diploma, he worked as a project engineer, structural engineer and designer. Mathias Tillmann has written numerous brochures, advisory documents and specialist articles on the subject of precast concrete.

All three authors have been or still are verymuch involved in construction industry organisations, many technical boards and national and international standards committees concerned with precast concrete construction.