Introduction to a new series of thin-wall prestressed concrete structures developed in China

This paper presents a new series of thin-walled pre-stressed concrete roof and floor slabs. For roof structures, an innovative thin-walled slab with a larger span, called the wild-goose-shaped slab, has been developed and used in China since 1979. Its use has spread into 5 provinces, especially over the past 5 years. A roof constructed with this slab is more economical than a traditional concrete structure; the speed of hoisting will greatly accelerate construction as one piece of this slab can cover a large area. Use of the wild-goose-shaped slab as roofing and the thin-walled single-T slab as flooring will allow the construction of multistory buildings. Many two-story buildings have been completed using this combination. The maximum span of the wild-goose-shaped roof slab attains 36 m and that of the single-T floor slab 30 m. The new roof slab can be used in civil structures or industrial plants with or without the use of overhead cranes. As of March 1995, the gross architectural area completed with these slabs was more than 400,000 m2, within 144 engineering projects. The design, construction and testing of these new roof slabs are briefly described in this paper.