No. 46. Better, Smarter, Stronger - 5th fib Congress - 7-11 October 2018 - Melbourne, Australia PDF format

On behalf of the Organising and Scientific Committees, and the host organisation, the Concrete Institute of Australia, it is with great pleasure that we publish these proceedings of scientific papers presented at the International Federation for Structural Concrete’s 5th fib Congress in Melbourne, Australia. We are privileged to follow past fib Congresses in Osaka (2002), Naples (2006), Washington (2010), and Mumbai (2014).

The theme of the Congress, “Better – Smarter – Stronger”, was designed to bring together leaders and practitioners in the concrete industry from around the globe. In an ever-changing global construction market, approaches to concrete supply, design, specification, and construction are required to be better in order to meet new challenges and exceed evolving expectations. In this context, researchers, suppliers, designers, and contractors need to be smarter to develop innovative ways of competing with alternative materials, global trends, and new design philosophies. This, in turn, requires not only stronger and more durable concrete structures, but also a strong belief in the continuing importance and relevance of concrete in the evolving worldwide construction industry.

The multidisciplinary theme of the Congress provided an excellent forum for engineers, specifiers, concrete technologists, researchers, academics, practitioners, and professionals to connect, share knowledge, and learn about advances in the field of concrete. The Congress brought together over 680 participants from more than 40 countries. The call for abstracts opened in May 2017, and more than 600 abstracts were received by the submission deadline in November 2017. Despite this large number, the quality was exceptionally high, and the proceedings contain more than 400 papers that formed the final technical programme. These were presented in six parallel sessions over four days, covering a wide range of structural, materials, and construction topics. The programme also included five outstanding keynote presentations, the papers of which are included in these proceedings.

All papers in the proceedings were peer reviewed by the International Scientific Committee, comprising a select group of experts and leaders in their respective fields. Their contribution and effort are greatly appreciated and gratefully acknowledged.

We are sincerely grateful to the authors of all papers and hope that you find them both interesting and innovative. We trust that these papers will serve as a valuable reference not only for delegates, but for the industry as a whole, and will contribute to making concrete better, smarter, and stronger.

On behalf of the Organising and Scientific Committees, we thank everyone who contributed to the fib Congress 2018.