This special volume will be useful for wide range scientific researchers and engineers from area of construction materials and structures.

These are the proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Engineering Sciences and Technologies (ESaT 2016), held from 29th of June until the 1st of July 2016 in the scenic High Tatras Mountains, Tatranské Matliare, Slovak Republic. After the successful implementation and excellent feedback of the first international conference ESaT 2015, ESaT 2016 was organized under the auspices of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Technical University of Košice, Slovak Republic in collaboration with the University of Miskolc, Hungary. The conference focused on a wide spectrum of topics and subject areas in civil engineering sciences. The proceedings bringing new and original advances and trends in various fields of engineering sciences and technologies that accost a wide range of academics, scientists, researchers and professionals from universities and practice. The authors of the articles originate from different countries around the world guaranteeing the importance, topicality, quality and level of presented results.

Concrete structures can be designed for durability by applying the principles and procedures of reliability theory combined with traditional structural design. This book is the first systematic attempt to introduce into structural design a general theory of structural reliability and existing calculation models for common degradation processes. It covers both the theoretical background and practical design for service life and includes worked examples which highlight the application of the design procedure and methods.

Concrete structures have been built for more than 100 years. At first, reinforced concrete was used for buildings and bridges, even for those with large spans. Lack of methods for structural analysis led to conservative and reliable design. Application of prestressed concrete started in the 40s and strongly developed in the 60s. The spans of bridges and other structures like halls, industrial structures, stands, etc. grew significantly larger. At that time, the knowledge of material behaviour, durability and overall structural performance was substantially less developed than it is today. In many countries statically determined systems with a fragile behavior were designed for cast in situ as well as precast structures. Lack of redundancy resulted in a low level of robustness in structural systems. In addition, the technical level of individual technologies (e.g. grouting of prestressed cables) was lower than it is today. The number of concrete structures, including prestressed ones, is extremely high. Over time and with increased loading, the necessity of maintaining safety and performance parameters is impossible without careful maintenance, smaller interventions, strengthening and even larger reconstructions. Although some claim that unsatisfactory structures should be replaced by new ones, it is often impossible, as authorities, in general, have only limited resources. Most structures have to remain in service, probably even longer than initially expected. In order to keep the existing concrete structures in an acceptable condition, the development of methods for monitoring, inspection and assessment, structural identification, nonlinear analysis, life cycle evaluation and safety and prediction of the future behaviour, etc. is necessary. The scatter of individual input parameters must be considered as a whole. This requires probabilistic approaches to individual partial problems and to the overall analysis. The members of the fib Task Group 2.8 “Safety and performance concepts” wrote, on the basis of the actual knowledge and experience, a comprehensive document that provides crucial knowledge for existing structures, which is also applicable to new structures. This guide to good practice is divided into 10 basic chapters dealing with individual issues that are critical for activities associated with preferably existing concrete structures. Bulletin 86 starts with the specification of the performance-based requirements during the entire lifecycle. The risk issues are described in chapter two. An extensive part is devoted to structural reliability, including practical engineering approaches and reliability assessment of existing structures. Safety concepts for design consider the lifetime of structures and summarise safety formats from simple partial safety factors to develop approaches suitable for application in sophisticated, probabilistic, non-linear analyses. Testing for design and the determination of design values from the tests is an extremely important issue. This is especially true for the evaluation of existing structures. Inspection and monitoring of existing structures are essential for maintenance, for the prediction of remaining service life and for the planning of interventions. Chapter nine presents probabilistically-based models for material degradation processes. Finally, case studies are presented in chapter ten. The results of the concrete structures monitoring as well as their application for assessment and prediction of their future behaviour are shown. The risk analysis of highway bridges was based on extensive monitoring and numerical evaluation programs. Case studies perfectly illustrate the application of the methods presented in the Bulletin. The information provided in this guide is very useful for practitioners and scientists. It provides the reader with general procedures, from the specification of requirements, monitoring, assessment to the prediction of the structures’ lifecycles. However, one must have a sufficiently large amount of experimental and other data (e.g. construction experience) in order to use these methods correctly. This data finally allows for a statistical evaluation. As it is shown in case studies, extensive monitoring programs are necessary. The publication of this guide and other documents developed within the fib will hopefully help convince the authorities responsible for safe and fluent traffic on bridges and other structures that the costs spent in monitoring are first rather small, and second, they will repay in the form of a serious assessment providing necessary information for decision about maintenance and future of important structures.

Structural engineers must focus on a structure's continued safety throughout its service life. Reinforced Concrete Structural Reliability covers the methods that enable engineers to keep structures reliable during all project phases, and presents a practical exploration of up-to-date techniques for predicting the lifetime of a structure. The book a

Construction projects are undertaken to meet a variety of business, service and aspirational objectives and needs. The success of a building or an element of infrastructure depends on how well it meets the owner's needs and interests or those of the users. Recent changes in owner attitudes to construction are reflected in an increasing interest in through-life costs, i.e. not only the capital costs of construction but also the operational costs associated with a structure's functional performance for a defined life span. The owner can greatly improve the likelihood of achieving the value they seek from the facility by being intimately and effectively involved in the definition of performance requirements at the start of the construction procurement process. The objective of fib Bulletin 44 is to provide guidance to owners of concrete structures on: the management of their concrete structures (buildings and infrastructure) as part of their business goals or the service objectives of their organization; best practice in the management of concrete structures; their responsibilities with respect to the management of their concrete structures; the wider context and issues of service life design; information and direction needed by the supporting professional team of architects, engineers, specifiers, contractors and others. This Guide also provides background information on topics such as deterioration processes and technical procedures used for the management of concrete structures, including reference to international standards for the protection and repair of concrete structures. These activities are illustrated by application examples/case histories and by a section addressing frequently asked questions. A brief review is made of some potential future developments.

Reliability of Structures enables both students and practising engineers to appreciate how to value and handle reliability as an important dimension of structural design. It discusses the concepts of limit states and limit state functions, and presents methodologies for calculating reliability indices and calibrating partial safety factors. It also