Form pressure generated by fresh concrete: a review about practice in formwork design

In this paper, several current industrial practices in formwork design are presented focusing on the normative calculation of the form pressure. Most of the current Standards are devoting for the design of the formwork for the normal vibrated concrete. Currently, the Standards are being updated to include provisions for the newly adapted concrete, such as the flowable concrete and self-consolidating concrete. However, the experience with these methods is still limited. The available methods for calculating the formwork pressure for the flowable concrete and SCC are based on measuring the shear strength of concrete using different concepts, such as the setting time of concrete or the structural build-up at rest. More field work is necessary to validate and provide the confidence to the available methods for the formwork pressure calculation. With this information the regulations could be improved to ensure a more economic formwork design. The paper was discussed within the RILEM TC 233-FPC “Form pressure generated by fresh concrete”.