Concrete is extensively used for the construction of internal floors of factories and warehouses as well as for external pavements such as parking, delivery and storage areas and hardstandings for heavy use in port and airport areas. When designed and constructed properly, concrete floors and external pavements will provide excellent serviceability over a long period.
Some of concrete’s advantages are :
The different types of loadings consist of:
Generally, the pavement consists of plain concrete slabs which can be:
Both steel-welded fabrics as steel fibres are used as reinforcement.
There are many common factors in the design and construction of internal and external concrete slabs, but there are also some significant differences.
The main difference is that external pavements are exposed to climatic conditions like daily and annual temperature changes, rain, frost, de-icing salts and freeze-thaw effects. This implies more severe specifications of the concrete mix in terms of binder content, water-cement ratio and type of aggregates and should result in a higher quality of the hardened concrete characterized by strength, water absorption and resistance to scaling.
Internal floors but also pavements subject to moderate loads are very often constructed on the ground. In that case, soil conditions play an important role in the design. For heavily loaded surfaces, an adequate base layer – either bound or unbound – is needed.
Other particular specifications may deal with surface level and regularity, surface finishing, joint patterns or jointless pavements.
More information can be found in numerous national documents of which some are listed below: