Quality, Energy Saving Production and Fire Resistance of Concrete Structures

Some of the main trends in the research and development work of construction and building materials industry are development of the quality, saving of energy and effective use of industrial waste materials.In addition, with regard to the safety of building, the exists a need for research on fire resistance of structures. The scientific and technical cooperation research work in the concrete technology has during the last years given priority to these important aims. Both the development of the quality and the energy saving require development of production processes, for example the moulds technics, the compaction technics, and the heat treatment technics in the concrete and precast element industry as well as in in-situ concreting. The quality of concrete structures, both in the field of load bearing frames and nonbearing elements as, for example facades, also requires structural development work. For use of waste materials, such as blast furnace slag, both the material properties and the production methods are studied. To increase the knowledge on the fire resistance of concrete structures the material properties at elevated and high temperatures are presented in the lectures as well as the behaviour of structures subjected to fire. in addition to the results of research, also the present situation in the standardization and trends in the development of increasing the fire resistance of structures are treated.