Title: Limit State Design of Precast, Prestressed Concrete Units

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Publication: CIA

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Date: 2/13/2011

Abstract:
Engineers who are specifying precast flooring components, and Project Managers or Main Contractors who are negotiating sub-contract agreements for the supply of those components, need to be aware that the cheapest price may often not be the least cost solution. Flooring units designed to meet the basic strength, allowable stress and deflection limit states may give less than satisfactory performance in terms of other performance criteria. A simplistic design, while it may result in the lowest-cost flooring units, delivered to the building site, can result in added costs to compensate for excessive or variable camber, to correct excessive vibration or to compensate for other deficiencies. The problem does not only relate to precast, prestressed floors, promoters of steel floor systems and cast-in-place floors are equally driven to meet the lowest price to get their system favoured during the conceptual design stage.