This book provides a State of the Art Report (STAR) produced by RILEM Technical Committee 254-CMS ‘Thermal Cracking of Mas-sive Concrete Structures’. Several recent developments related to the old problem of understanding/predicting stresses originated from the evolution of the hydration of concrete are at the origin of the creation this technical committee. Having identified a lack in the organization of up-to-date scientific and technological knowledge about cracking induced by hydration heat effects, this STAR aims to provide both practitioners and scientists with a deep integrated overview of consolidated knowledge, together with recent developments on this subject.

Concrete structures can be designed for durability by applying the principles and procedures of reliability theory combined with traditional structural design. This book is the first systematic attempt to introduce into structural design a general theory of structural reliability and existing calculation models for common degradation processes. It

This is the state-of-the-art report prepared by the RILEM TC “Application of Super Absorbent Polymers (SAP) in concrete construction”. It gives a comprehensive overview of the properties of SAP, specific water absorption and desorption behaviour of SAP in fresh and hardening concrete, effects of the SAP addition on rheological properties of fresh concrete, changes of cement paste microstructure and mechanical properties of concrete. Furthermore, the key advantages of using SAP are described in detail: the ability of this material to act as an internal curing agent to mitigate autogenous shrinkage of high-performance concrete, the possibility to use SAP as an alternative to air-entrainment agents in order to increase the frost resistance of concrete, and finally, the benefit of steering the rheology of fresh cement-based materials. The final chapter describes the first existing and numerous prospective applications for this new concrete additive.

The first part of the report is devoted to linear elements (beams, columns) and includes chapters on shear and flexure in beams, ultimate limit state design of prestressed beams, and of reinforced concrete members under combination of bending with axial load and shear, of beams subjected to torsion, and a chapter on shear design based on truss models with crack friction. The second part treats two-dimensional elements and includes background information on ULS design of wall, shell, and slab elements. lt concludes with a chapter on axisymmetric punching of slabs.