Stardard form size in Europe (Croatia) 1

JEmH · Apr 5, 2007

I have a client who is going to be on a project in Croatia and wants to build a rectangular concrete settling tank at what I guess is a temporary industrial process water treatment plant. I am wondering what the common form dimensions are for concrete forms in that area. Here in the eastern US, I find that panels in multiples of 2’ are very common, but I wouldn’t think that to be the case in Europe. If anyone has any info about available grades of bar and f’c of concrete, that would be helpful, too. Would rebar be grade 400 and the usual 10, 15, 20, etc. sizes?
I’m far enough out of my element that I realize that I need to kick this to an engineer who is local to the project, but since the client is local to me and repeat business who actually pays, I’d like to at least give him a preliminary design.

csd72 · Apr 5, 2007

In the UK I believe 1200mm (about 4')is the norm for plywood widths, I imagine it would be more like this in croatia.

Ussuri · Apr 5, 2007

A good starting point for grades of concrete will be EN 206-1 Concrete, specification, performance, production and conformity. Typical grades are C20/25, C25/30, C32/40, C35/45, C40/50. The first number is the cylinder strength in MPa and the second is the cube strength.

In the UK we use cube strengths on the continent they used cylinder strengths.

For reinforcement EN 10080-1 steel for the reinforcement of concrete, weldable reinforceing steel general. Grade 460 reinforcement was the normal high yield reinforcing bar used (yield 460MPa) but 500MPa is becoming more common. Reinforcing bar generally ribbed and there are different patterns of ribbing available. Well certainly in the UK anyway.

Preferred bar sizes according to the code are (in mm) 6, 8,10,12,14,16,20,25,28,32,40,50 but in my experience 6, 14, 28 are not used.

Generally we use formwork in multiples of 600mm. NOt sure about the continent though. But the likes of RMD and PERI are used all over the world. As I think about it PERI might be a good starting point as they are german an more likely to have been using metric units.

http://www.rmdkwikform.net/downloads/MaximaEuro-8-2005.pdf

The links below are some UK associations which might be worth speaking to. With the impending introduction of the Eurocodes all of Europe should be singing from the same hymn sheet, so they will as up to speed with it as anyone.

http://www.concrete.org.uk/

http://www.cementindustry.co.uk/

http://www.concretecentre.com/main.asp?page=0