Prefabrication of High Performance Prestressed Concrete Building Components

The industrial manufacture of concrete building components prestressed by bonded wires is moving fast towards a wider use of high performance concretes (HPCs). This chapter presents the industrial experience of Saret-PPB within its factories in France. The PPB group manufactures floorbeams and slabs for flooring, beams for buildings and bridges, as well as industrial cladding. The mechanical performance regarding the flexibility of the floor, and as far as the shear stress is concerned, are also identical to the present floors. There is also a decrease of the floorbeam weight, and a large increase of the precasting bed productivity. The increase in allowable shear stress from 9 bars to 13 bars faises the minimum span for which transverse wiring inside the floorbeams is necessary, hence an overall improvement of the product quality. The chapter presents a study that concentrates on HPC used in the manufacture of plates and beams.