Trade Journals for the Concrete Industry

This paper on connections, after the one appeared in CPI issue 5/2010 on structural codes, is the second one of a series aiming to show the different practice of design of precast concrete structures in Europe and America (actually, according to fib and PCI standards, respectively), by comparing both approaches to several relevant issues, that used to be treated separately by those bodies. In fact, a joint activity between fib Commission Prefabrication and PCI is being running since 2008, which led, throughout those comparisons, to a fruitful integration of views, enabling to improve them and, finally, to merge them into common documents on newly dealt with issues. More of these papers will follow. Here, the philosophy of the US approach to connections between precast components will be compared to that of fib. Each organization has published a Connection Manual or Guide to Good Practice and the content and suggested design approach on each document will be compared. The uniqueness between the PCI and fib approach will be identified and discussed. Finally, the difference and suggestions for producing a more meaningful interface between PCI Committees and fib Commission 6 will be outlined.