PRE-CAST BUILDING

CONSTRUCTION
HARISHANKAR P
7 1 7 7 2 2 7 11 0 8
M E STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
WHAT IS PRECAST ?
Precast concrete is a construction product produced by casting concrete in a reusable mold or
"form" which is then cured in a controlled environment, transported to the construction site and
lifted and set into place.
 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PRECAST AND CAST-IN-SITU
PRECAST BUILDINGS
Designed, manufactured, and tested under supervision of
experienced management.
Entire concrete blocks are cured uniformly for the required
amount of time.
Production is not hampered with weather delays
Aesthetically pleasing appearance
Environment-friendly
Stationary equipment efficiency designed for repetitive
production. Cost of formwork per u nit to be lower than for
site-cast production.
Greater flexibility: Design and manufacturing at same
location.
Construction is faster.
CONVENTIONAL BUILDINGS
Concrete cast at site where contractors do not take care of
mix design proportions.
Curing is not done uniformly at sites.
Production is severely hampered.
Special aesthetic design required
Non environment-friendly
Special design and features developed for each project at
higher costs
Not flexible
Construction is comparatively slower.
PRECAST ELEMENTS
A precast building is constructed by assembling and connecting various prefabricated elements
required in the building structure. These elements are

Precast slabs
Precast beams
Precast columns
Precast walls
Precast foundation
PRECAST SLAB
Precast slabs are cast in a factory environment and include t he following prestressed concrete
options:
Hollow core units:
A Hollow core slab offers the ideal structural section by reducing deadweight while providing the
maximum structural efficiency within the slab depth. Precast floors are available with a variety of
factory-formed notches, slots and reinforcement arrangements which offer various design
approaches.
PRECAST SLAB
Double-tee units:
Double Tee (TT) slabs are two symmetrically placed beams interacting with a slab forming in
one section with a "double tee" shape made in precast, prestressed concrete.
Resistant to moisture and corrosion. Parking garages, office buildings, commercial buildings,
factories, industrial buildings, etc., are all ideal applications.
Made with G50 concrete and ½" strands ASTM A416 as standard, each double Tee slab is
normally 2400mm wide.
BEARING SUPPORTS FOR DOUBLE
TEE SLABS
Double tee slabs can be supported on many types of supports designed to carry the required dead
and live loads. Precast beams, precast walls, poured concrete beams and walls, masonry walls,
insulated concrete forming system walls and structural steel beams are all suitable for use with
double tee s labs as load bearing systems.
SOLID CONCRETE UNITS:
These are simple solid core slabs which appear same as solid slabs cast in situ; the only difference
being that they are prefabricated.
Slab Depths: range from 75mm to 240mm with upstands - giving over all depths between 150mm and
300mm.
Slab Widths: Usually manufactured to 600mm or 1200mm nominal size
Rapid Construction: Precast slabs are manufactured to the specific needs of the building, eliminating
shuttering and adding to speed of construction.
Design Efficient: Composite floors can be designed to act compositely with the structure of the
building to reduce member sizes.
Soffit Finish: The soffit of the solid prestressed slab is generally from a steel mould and is therefore
suitable for an exposed finish in structures such as car parks, industrial buildings and for a wide variety
of applied finishes in other types of buildings.
BIAXIAL VOIDED SLABS:
A relatively new technology developed in Europe has taken the efficiency of cast-in-place flat
plate slabs to new heights.
Floor spans up to 17 meters (-56 feet) and overall slab thicknesses up to 60 cm (~24 inches).
These slabs are more efficient than traditional structural floor systems commonly used in the
construction of office buildings. The main effect of the voided slab system is to decrease the
overall weight by as much as 35% when compared to a solid slab of the same capacity, while still
offering other advantages.
The voided slab system has the same bearing capacity as conventional concrete solid slabs, and
standard design and detailing techniques can b e directly applied.
PRECAST BEAMS
Beams and beam shells are both used for suspended flooring. Beams are typically used as ledges
for other forms of p recast flooring to sit on but can also be used as a flooring option in their own
right. They are generally manufactured to suit each particular situation and profiles can include
Tee-beams,
L-beams,
Rectangular beams,
U-beams and Beam shells.
Beams can be either reinforced or pre stressed.
TEE-BEAMS:
Tee-beams (either single or double) cover the span range beyond slab-type members such as
hollow core planks.
Tee-beams are a very efficient structural shape.
The units are generally cast with straight strands or deflected strands, depending on design
considerations.
The Tee-beams are the basis for the design of economical, fire rated structures where
construction time, long spans or heavy loadings are important cost influences.
INVERTED TEE-BEAMS (LEDGER):
Inverted Tee-beams are generally used for flooring systems like beam and infill where they
provide a ledger for precast floor units to sit on. Inverted Tee-beams are structurally similar to a
standard single Tee-beam.
L-BEAM (SPANDREL):
L-beams have an 'L' shape profile which provides a ledge for a precast flooring system to sit on.
These beams are generally used to span clear sections and are reinforced and/or prestressed.
RECTANGULAR BEAMS:

• Rectangular beams get their name from the end profile. These beams are generally used to span clear
sections and are reinforced and/or prestressed.

U-Beams:

• U-beams as the name suggests have a 'U' shaped profile. These beams are generally used to span
clear sections and are reinforced and/or pretensioned.
• They are more commonly used for single-unit pedestrian bridges than with composite flooring
systems.
BEAM SHELLS:
This is a complimentary composite system of precast elements that contain all the positive main
beam reinforcement and m ost/all of the stirrups in a minimum volume of concrete for economy
and ease of handling..
They are generally 'U' shaped and mostly used in conjunction with precast flooring such as
hollow core or permanent formwork panels to eliminate on site forming.
PRECAST COLUMNS
Precast concrete columns are modular in design in order to be made into different heights.
Widths are 12", 18" and 24".
Columns are not structural but can be used as such only after a structural engineer has adapted
them to a building.
Precast column can be produced as either single storey corbel column or multi storey corbel
column.
PRECAST COLUMNS
Columns can either be rectangular or circular in section.
Projecting rebar can be provided for tying in to in-situ floors. Options for foundation
connections include cast in base plates, dowel tubes or projections.
Beam support is achieved by either flared heads, corbels or bolt-on brackets.
PRECAST WALLS
A wall system can be comprised of:
flat or curved panels (solid, hollow-core, or insulated)
window or mullion panels
ribbed panels
double-tee.
PRECAST FOOTINGS
Precast footings are a recent innovation. No holes need to be dug for footings, as the precast
blocks are set on grade, and the posts, columns or beams fit in pockets cast in the concrete block.
Precast concrete foundations are pre-engineered systems manufactured in a controlled
environment.
Precast footings
 Built off site
 Lowest site impact (0.5-1.0 days)
 Negligible impact by weather
 Panelized = joints for expansion and Contraction
Cast in situ footings
 Formed and cast on site
 High site impact (5-8 days)
 Construction impacted by weather
 Monolithically cast = cracks
TYPE OF PRECAST SYSTEMS
The type of structural system in mind:
The purpose of building,
The efficiency of the system,
The location and
The client's need.
Depending on the load-bearing structure, precast systems can be divided into the follow categories:
Large-panel systems
Frame systems
Slab-column systems with walls
Mixed systems
LARGE PANEL SYSTEM
"Large-panel system" refers to multistory structures composed of large wall and floor concrete
panels connected in the vertical and horizontal directions so that the wall panels enclose
appropriate spaces for the rooms within a building.
These panels form a box-like structure.
Both vertical and horizontal panels resist gravity load.
Wall panels are usually one storey high. Horizontal floor and roof panels span either as one-way
or two-way slabs.
When properly joined together, these horizontal elements act as diaphragms that transfer the
lateral loads to the walls.
Depending on wall layout, there are three basic configurations of large-panel buildings:

Cross-wall system: The main walls that resist gravity and lateral loads
are placed in the short direction of the building.

Longitudinal-wall system: The walls resisting gravity and lateral loads

are placed in the longitudinal direction.

Two-way system: The walls are placed in both directions.

FRAME SYSTEMS
Precast frames can be constructed using either linear elements or spatial beam column sub-
assemblages.
The use of linear elements generally means placing the connecting faces at the beam-column
junctions.
The beams can be seated on corbels at the columns, for ease of construction and to aid the shear
transfer from the beam to the column.
The beam-column joints accomplished in this way are hinged.
However, rigid beam-column connections are used in some cases, when the continuity of
longitudinal reinforcement through the beam-column joint needs to be ensured.
SLAB COLUMN SYSTEMS
These systems rely on shear walls to sustain lateral load effects, whereas the slab-column
structure resists mainly gravity loads.
There are two main systems in this category:
Lift-slab system with walls
Prestressed slab-column system
LIFT-SLAB SYSTEM:
The load-bearing structure consists of precast reinforced concrete columns and slabs.
Precast columns are usually two stories high.
All precast structural elements are assembled by means of special joints.
Precast concrete floor slabs are lifted from the ground up to the final height by lifting cranes.
The slab panels are lifted to the top of the column and then moved downwards to the final
position.
Temporary supports are used to keep the slabs in the position until the connection with the
columns has been achieved.
THE PRESTRESSED SLAB-COLUMN SYSTEM
Horizontal prestressing in two orthogonal directions to achieve continuity.
The precast concrete column elements are 1 to 3 stories high.
After erecting the slabs and columns of a storey, the columns and floor slabs are prestressed by
means of prestressing tendon s that pass through ducts in the columns at the floor level and along
the gaps left between adjacent slabs.
After prestressing, the gaps between the slabs are filled with i n situ concrete and the tendons
then become bonded with the spans.
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