The 2016 programme consists of 64 Research and Development studies, 22 of which are new, and are divided into 5 topics.
Sustainable development (green concretes, durability, energy efficiency, environment) – 19 studies; 7 are new
– Concrete recycling – National RECYBETON project and national research agency (ANR) ECOREB project
– Development of precast concrete products based on agro-sourced by-products
– Optimized of the hardening of concretes made with binary and ternary blended cements
– Solutions for accelerating the hardening of binders based on blast-furnace slab: optimization and durability (new study)
– National PerfDub project – Performance-based approach to the durability of concrete structures – ANR MODEVIE project – Modelling ot the ageing of concrete structures
– Interoperability of electronic tags cast into precast concrete products
– Chemical attack – Complement to guidelines for choosing exposure classes
– Protecting buildings against termite infestation – Solutions of the precast concrete products industry (new study)
– Effect of the protection crawl spaces provide with respect to the risk of reinforcement corrosion in coastal zones (new study)
– Adjustment of concrete cover in accordance with the durability performance of concretes (new study)
– Evolution of the hygrothermal performance of building floors/walls
– Heavy partitions and upper floors in housing
– Performance of concrete solutions in thermal-performance calculation software
– Improving the representativity of calculation of the thermal performance of floors (new study)
– Program for calculating the environmental impact of precast concrete building framing
– Contribution of precast concrete products to the environmental performance of buildings
– Creation and updating of EPDs for the precast concrete industry (new study)
– Contribution of blockwork to the environmental performance of houses (new study)

Concrete technology – 6 studies; 1 is new
– Acoustic vibration of concrete
– Optimization of mix design of semi-dry concrete for block-making
– Optimization of certain characteristics of masonry units
– Facilitating use of very-high-performance concretes in precasting
– Permanent wall forms: properties resulting from core concretes
– Intensely black concrete slab (new study)

Fire / FSE – 10 studies; 2 are new
– Consideration of continuity in the fire design of floors using floor plates
– Fire-break performance of smoke-exhaust and ventilation ducts
– Travelling Fires: Relevance of this fire models for large compartments
– Fire resistance of tall non-loadbearing masonry walls
– Determining fire design scenarios for different building types (new study)
– Fire performance of masonry walls
– Method for taking account of membrane effect in floors
– Fire propagation on insulated sandwich-panel façades
– Parametering of a digital model for assessing the fire performance of non-loadbearing solid panels
– FSE study : effect of aggregate on fire behaviour (new study)

Standardization – Certification – Quality Management – 6 studies; 3 are new
– Cracking of floorplate joints – Identification of first-order parameters for preventing disorders
– Recommendations for preventing internal sulphate attack – Test programme
– Determining the performance of drainage channels, bearing potential normative changes in mind
– Slip resistance of walking surfaces and stairs (new study)
– Non-destructive measurement methods (new study)
– Drafting of standard NF DTU 23.5 (Block and beam floor systems) (new study)

Structural design – 23 studies; 9 are new
– Acoustic performance and durability of noise barriers
– Low-frequency acoustic performance of concrete walls/floors
– Acoustic performance of concrete stairs
– Effects of taking account of transverse vehicle impact in Eurocode-based design of bridge superstructures with pretensioned precast beams
– Damping factor for dynamic analysis in Eurocode based design of railway bridges with pretensioned precast beams
– Protocol for measurement of transfer length in prestressed elements
– Evaluation of the shear resistance of floor systems with lattice joists
– Shear resistance of hollow-core slabs with topping
– Acoustic performance of floor systems using floor plates
– Effect of lattice-girder stiffeners on deformation of floors (new study)
– Acoustic performances of concrete blocks (new study)
– Database of the mechanical characteristics of concrete blockwork (new study)
– Design of floor systems subject to mechanical action due to thermal gradients (new study)
– Characterization of lifting eyes in precast beams (new study)
– Performance of coatings on concrete-block masonry
– Mechanical characterization of unfinished (no concrete core) walls made with permanent forms
– Best-practice guidelines for masonry walls using concrete blocks
– Measurement and characterization of the thermal performance of masonry
– Verification of block and beam floor systems under seismic loading
– Soil-retaining function of permanent wall forms for temporary works (new study)
– Study of punching shear in floorplate floor systems (new study)
– Justifications for using a visco-elastic material in pinned joints in seismic zones (new study)
– Clarification of standard NF EN 1992-1-1 with respect to precast concrete products (new study)

Competitive intelligence – 1 new study
– Circular economy: Issues and opportunities for the precast concrete industry (new study)
BIM Building (Building Information Modelling) technology is also a part of the programme, with the objective of building a database of precast concrete products and systems which can subsequently be shared.
