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.

Der Betonfertigteilbau ist eine der innovativsten Bauweisen - hier werden neue Betone, Bewehrungen und Herstellverfahren erstmals angewendet, denn das Fertigteilwerk bietet hervorragende Voraussetzungen für die industrielle Herstellung. Dieses Buch führt in die Bauweise ein und vermittelt alles notwendige Wissen für die Konstruktion, Berechnung und Bemessung. Auch die geschichtliche Entwicklung und der Stand der europäischen Normung werden aufgezeigt. Der Dreh- und Angelpunkt für den wirtschaftlichen und fehlerfreien Einsatz von Betonfertigteilen ist der fertigungs- und montagegerechte Entwurf. Neben den zu beachtenden Randbedingungen werden typische Fertigteilkonstruktionen zur Diskussion gestellt. Die Verbindungen der Betonfertigteile sind gerade bei Horizontallasten besonders zu beachten, daher wird die Aussteifung von Fertigteilgebäuden ausführlich behandelt. Besonderheiten der Bemessung, z. B. Lager, Konsolen und Stützenstöße, werden detailliert dargestellt. Ein zunehmend wichtiger Anwendungsbereich für Betonfertigteile ist der Fassadenbau, welchem ein eigenes Kapitel gewidmet ist. Abschließend wird auf die Fertigung eingegangen, um beim Leser das Verständnis für die Bauweise zu vertiefen. Für die vorliegende 2. Auflage wurde das Werk vom erweiterten Autorenteam komplett überarbeitet. Das Buch ist eine Einführung und ein praktisches Arbeitsmittel mit Beispielen für Bauingenieure und Architekten gleichermaßen.

This document has a broad scope and is not focussed on design issues. Precast construction under seismic conditions is treated as a whole. The main principles of seismic design of different structural systems, their behavior and their construction techniques are presented through rules, construction steps and sequences, procedures, and details that should lead to precast structures built in seismic areas complying with the fundamental performance requirements of collapse prevention and life safety in major earthquakes and limited damage in more frequent earthquakes. The content of this document is largely limited to conventional precast construction and, although some information is provided on the well-known “PRESSS technology” (jointed ductile dry connections), this latter solution is not treated in detail in this document. The general overview, contained in this document, of alternative structural systems and connection solutions available to achieve desired performance levels, intends to provide engineers, architects, clients, and end-users (in general) with a better appreciation of the wide range of applications that modern precast concrete technology can have in various types of construction from industrial to commercial as well as residential. Lastly, the emphasis on practical aspects, from conceptual design to connection detailing, aims to help engineers to move away from the habit of blindly following prescriptive codes in their design, but instead go back to basic principles, in order to achieve a more robust understanding, and thus control, of the seismic behaviour of the structural system as a whole, as well as of its components and individual connections.

Since the 1980’s, several buildings throughout the world have been subject to gas explosions, impact by cars or airplanes, or car bomb attacks. In many cases the effect of the impact or explosion has been the failure of a critical structural member at the perimeter of the building. After the failure, the load supported by that member could not be redistributed and part or all of the structure has collapsed in a progressive manner. The phenomenon that occurs when local failure is not confined to the area of initial distress, and spreads horizontally and/or vertically through the structure, is termed progressive collapse. Progressive collapse is a relatively rare event, as it requires both an accidental action to cause local damage and a structure that lacks adequate continuity, ductility, and redundancy to prevent the spread of damage. It is technically very difficult and economically prohibitive to design buildings for absolute safety. However it is possible to construct precast concrete buildings that afford an acceptable degree of safety with regard to accidental actions. A structure is normally designed to respond properly, without damage, under normal load conditions, but local and/or global damages cannot be avoided under the effect of an unexpected, but moderate degree of accidental overload. Properly designed and constructed structures usually possess reasonable probability not to collapse catastrophically under such loads, depending on different factors, for example: the type of loading; the degree and the location of accidental loading in regard to the structure and its structural members; the type of structural system, the construction technology, and the spans between structural vertical members, etc. No structure can be expected to be totally resistant to actions arising from an unexpected and extreme cause, but it should not be damaged to an extent that is disproportionate to the original cause. The aim of fib Bulletin 63 is to summarize the present knowledge on the subject and to provide guidance for the design of precast structures against progressive collapse. This is addressed in terms of (a) the classification of the actions, (b) their effect on the structural types, (c) the strategies to cope with such actions, (d) the design methods and (e) some typical detailing, all supplemented with illustrations from around the world, and some model calculations.