Concrete is well known to behave efficiently in fire conditions, as it is incombustible, does not emit smoke, and provides good thermal insulation. Furthermore, in reinforced concrete structures, the concrete cover gives a natural protection to the reinforcement, and the size of the sections often delays the heating of the core, thus favouring the fire resistance of the structural members. In addition, concrete structures are often robust and therefore able to accommodate local damage without major consequences to the overall structural integrity. However, past experience with real fires shows that a thorough understanding of concrete behaviour and structural mechanics is still needed to improve the design of R/C structures with respect to fire. The objective of fib Bulletin 46 is to augment the current knowledge about concrete and concrete structures under fire, not only for the design of new structures, but also for the analysis and repair of existing fire-damaged structures. Both structural and materials issues are examined, and the results of the most recent research activities on the structural performance of concrete subjected to fire are reported. Special attention is paid to the indirect actions caused by the restrained thermal deformations and several basic examples show how a local fire influences global structural behaviour. fib Bulletin 46 is intended for use by practicing engineers to improve their understanding of the behaviour of concrete structures in fire and thereby produce better and safer design standards.

Concrete is after water the second most used material. The production of concrete in the industrialized countries annually amounts to 1.5-3 tonne per capita and is still increasing. This has significant impact on the environment. Thus there is an urgent need for more effective use of concrete in structures and their assessment. The scope of activities of the fib Task Group 3.7 was to define the methodology for integrated life-cycle assessment of concrete structures considering main essential aspects of sustainability such as: environmental, economic and social aspects throughout the whole life of the concrete structure. The aim was to set up basic methodology to be helpful in development of design and assessment tools focused on sustainability of concrete structure within the whole life cycle. Integrated Life Cycle Assessment (ILCA) represents an advanced approach integrating different aspects of sustainability in one complex assessment procedure. The integrated approach is necessary to insure that the structure will serve during the whole expected service life with a maximum functional quality and safety, while environmental and economic loads will be kept at a low level. The effective application and quality of results are dependent on the availability of relevant input data obtained using a detailed inventory analysis, based on specific regional conditions. The evaluation of the real level of total quality of concrete structure should be based on a detailed ILCA analysis using regionally or locally relevant data sets.

The fib Awards for Outstanding Concrete Structures are attributed every four years at the fib Congress, with the goal of enhancing the international recognition of concrete structures that demonstrate the versatility of concrete as a structural medium. The award consists of a bronze plaque to be displayed on the structure, and certificates presented to the main parties responsible for the work. Applications are invited by the fib secretariat via the National Member Groups. Information on the competition is also made available on the fib’s website, and in the newsletter fib-news published in Structural Concrete. The submitted structures must have been completed during the four years prior to the year of the Congress at which the awards are attributed. The jury may accept an older structure, completed one or two years before, provided that it was not already submitted for the previous award attribution (Mumbai, 2014). The submitted structures must also have the support of an fib Head of Delegation or National Member Group Secretary in order to confirm the authenticity of the indicated authors. Entries consist of the completed entry form, three to five representative photos of the whole structure and/or any important details or plans, and short summary texts explaining: - the history of the project; - description of the structure; - particularities of its realisation (difficulties encountered, special solutions found, etc.). A jury designated by the Presidium selects the winners. The awards are attributed in two categories, Civil Engineering Structures (including bridges) and Buildings. Two or three ‘Winners’ and two to four ‘Special Mention’ recipients are selected in each category, depending on the number of entries received. The jury takes into account criteria such as: - design aspects, including aesthetics and design detailing; - construction practice and quality of work; - environmental aspects of the design and its construction; - durability and sustainability aspects; - significance of the contribution made by the entry to the development and improvement of concrete construction. The decisions of the jury are definitive and cannot be challenged. They are unveiled at a special ceremony during the fib Congress in Melbourne.

The FRC-2014 Workshop Fibre Reinforced Concrete: from Design to Structural Applications was the first ACI-fib joint technical event. The Workshop, held at Polytechnique Montreal (Canada) on July 24th and 25th 2014, was attended by 116 participants from 25 countries and 4 continents. The first international FRC workshop was held in Bergamo (Italy) in 2004. At that time, the lack of specific building codes and standards was identified as the main inhibitor to the application of this technology in engineering practice. Ten years after Bergamo, many of the objectives identified at that time have been achieved. The use of fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) for designing structural members in bending and shear has recently been addressed in the fib Model Code 2010. Steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) has also been used structurally in several building and bridge projects in Europe and North-America. SFRC has been widely used in segmental tunnel linings all over the world. Members of ACI544 and fib TG-4.1 have been involved in writing code based specifications for the design of FRC structural members. More than fifty papers were presented at the Workshop from which forty-four were selected for this joint ACI/fib publication. The papers are organised in the document under six themes: Design guidelines and specifications, Material properties for design, Behaviour and design of beams and columns, Behaviour and design of slabs and other structures, Behaviour and design of foundations and underground components, and finally, Applications in structure and underground construction projects.

Post-earthquake fire is one of the most complicated problems resulting from earthquakes and presents a serious risk to urban structures. Most standards and codes ignore the possibility of post-earthquake fire; thus it is not factored in when determining the ability of buildings to withstand load. This book describes the effects of post-earthquake fire on partially damaged buildings located in seismic urban regions. The book quantifies the level of associated post-earthquake fire effects, and discusses methods for mitigating the risk at both the macro scale and micro scale. The macro scale strategies address urban regions while the micro scale strategies address building structures, covering both existing buildings and those that are yet to be designed.

Since the 1980’s, several buildings throughout the world have been subject to gas explosions, impact by cars or airplanes, or car bomb attacks. In many cases the effect of the impact or explosion has been the failure of a critical structural member at the perimeter of the building. After the failure, the load supported by that member could not be redistributed and part or all of the structure has collapsed in a progressive manner. The phenomenon that occurs when local failure is not confined to the area of initial distress, and spreads horizontally and/or vertically through the structure, is termed progressive collapse. Progressive collapse is a relatively rare event, as it requires both an accidental action to cause local damage and a structure that lacks adequate continuity, ductility, and redundancy to prevent the spread of damage. It is technically very difficult and economically prohibitive to design buildings for absolute safety. However it is possible to construct precast concrete buildings that afford an acceptable degree of safety with regard to accidental actions. A structure is normally designed to respond properly, without damage, under normal load conditions, but local and/or global damages cannot be avoided under the effect of an unexpected, but moderate degree of accidental overload. Properly designed and constructed structures usually possess reasonable probability not to collapse catastrophically under such loads, depending on different factors, for example: the type of loading; the degree and the location of accidental loading in regard to the structure and its structural members; the type of structural system, the construction technology, and the spans between structural vertical members, etc. No structure can be expected to be totally resistant to actions arising from an unexpected and extreme cause, but it should not be damaged to an extent that is disproportionate to the original cause. The aim of fib Bulletin 63 is to summarize the present knowledge on the subject and to provide guidance for the design of precast structures against progressive collapse. This is addressed in terms of (a) the classification of the actions, (b) their effect on the structural types, (c) the strategies to cope with such actions, (d) the design methods and (e) some typical detailing, all supplemented with illustrations from around the world, and some model calculations.