Over a period of ten years, both FIP and CEB devoted much of their efforts to the preparation of regulations for the design and detailing of reinforced and prestressed concrete structures. This work has already resulted in important practical conclusions, providing greater overall safety for these types of structures.
A survey of investigations into accidents occurring either during construction or in service has shown that, in the majority of cases, the causes of such accidents are to be found in execution errors rather than in design errors.
It was considered appropriate to begin by preparing recommendations which, without pretending to replace experience, could provide contractors with a useful source of information.
The present recommendations therefore deal with construction works, but cover only a limited number of specific problems in post-tensioning techniques, which the Working Party entrusted with the task considered to be particularly important, taking durability requirements into account.
They should be regarded as supplementary recommendations, adding to the good practices normally applied in high-quality reinforced concrete construction. However, they are not exhaustive, and other aspects may also be considered, such as vertical cables, repair and maintenance of structures, fuel tanks, pretensioning, unbonded tendons, and similar topics.
The report is limited to the following:
The first three topics are general in nature and cover the main stages of any post-tensioning site operation. The last two concern specific operations related to special types of structures.
