Structural design with flowable concrete: a fib-recommendation for tailor-made concrete

Flowable concrete (either compacted with some vibration or selfcompacting) is becoming a widely applied building material. Due to its flowable nature, reinforcing bars can become an obstacle, mixture components may float or segregate and the casting technique determines the orientation of fibres, if any. An increasing range of components is available to optimize concrete concerning rheological and hardened state properties and for the application under consideration. Flowable concrete offers an extended range of engineering properties and the potential for product innovation. fib Task Group (TG) 8.8 'Structural Design with Flowable Concrete' started in 2009 to facilitate the use of innovative flowable materials for the design of concrete structures. Taking into account research findings and practical experience, the main objectives of fib TG 8.8 are to write a state-of-the-art report and recommendations on the structural design with flowable concrete. fib TG 8.8 considers three aspects of flowable concrete: material properties, production effects and structural boundary conditions. This paper discusses the scope of fib TG 8.8 concerning the characteristics and the potential of flowable concrete and presents related design standards. fib TG 8.8 aims at promoting the application of flowable concrete, improving and adapting the concrete design and production technology and its implementation in guidelines and codes.