FIB 51 Structural Concrete Textbook Vol 1




Preface

The three volumes of “Structural Concrete: Textbook on behaviour, design and performance – Updated knowledge of the CEB/FIP Model Code 1990” inaugurated fib’s series of Bulletins in 1999. The first fib President, Michel Virlogeux, noted in his Preface to these three Bulletins that: “... the decision to publish it first, as numbers 1, 2 and 3, is highly symbolic.” Shortly after the dawn of the second decade of fib’s life and the completion of its first 50 Bulletins, numbers 51, 52, 53 and 54 in the series are again devoted to the “Structural Concrete Textbook” in what appear at first sight as its “second edition”.


The new volumes go far beyond the minor upgrade that a “second edition” normally entails. The scope and the structure are about the same as in Bulletins 1, 2 and 3, but the new edition contains a wealth of new information. Some chapters have been upgraded and updated, while others are almost fully new in content, reflecting the advances in our knowledge and technology during the past decade. As a matter of fact, some authors of the new edition have not resisted the temptation to go beyond what may reasonably be considered as background documentation of CEB/FIP Model Code 1990. Their chapters epitomise the modern thinking and knowledge that will go into fib’s new Model Code, which is scheduled to appear in 2010 with a scope much wider than that of CEB/FIP Model Code 1990. In this respect the new Textbook presages fib Model Code 2010.


Like its predecessor, the new Textbook will be essential reading material for graduate students in the field of structural concrete, especially for doctoral ones at the outset of their research work. It will offer them the basics of material and structural behaviour and the fundamental knowledge needed for the design, assessment or retrofitting of concrete structures. It will also help designers and consultants in their quest to know what is behind the – often prescriptive – rules they apply in their everyday practice. In this respect the new Textbook will prove specially valuable to the users of the new European Norms EN 1992-11:2003,


EN 1992-2:2005 and EN 1992-3: 2006 (i.e. Eurocode 2 for concrete buildings, bridges and container structures, respectively), which are based only partly on CEB/FIP Model Code 1990 and partly on more recent knowledge, not reflected yet in the 1999 edition of the Textbook.


The driving force behind the new Textbook has been György L. Balázs, who succeeded Manfred Wicke as chairman of SAG 2, “Dissemination of Knowledge”, and is currently Deputy President of fib. György persistently pursued the upgrade of the older version of chapters, or the drafting of new ones when the original version was out of date or its authors no longer available (as was often the case). Thanks and congratulations are also due to all contributing authors of the Textbook, new or old, for devoting their precious time to its completion, even more so because they have also been contributing at the same time to the draft fib Model Code 2010 and/or working in fib’s Commissions and Task Groups. fib is most grateful to them all.


Michael Fardis

President, fib



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