Thanks for joining us today as we talk about high performance precast, as well as, of course, high performance structures, and really how everything integrates together and works together. So this is an introductory presentation. We're going to go through some of the basics of precast, basics, again, of high performance, of course. And then we'll discuss some of the key benefits that relate to high performance design and precast as a whole. We'll focus in on some of those main attributes, things like the design and aesthetic versatility. We'll explore a little bit on the energy efficiency side, even talk about the high performance or terms of resiliency and things related to that as well. So with that, we'll get started here. But we'll start kind of with a more basic and elementary question, just so everybody's kind of on the same page. We say, well, what is concrete, right? Because we're talking about precast concrete today. And as you'll see, of course, if you look out there, you're going to find a lot of different definitions. But our friends at ASTM International really put forth a pretty good version of this, saying it's a composite material that consists of, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, the key part of the definition here is that it's a composite material. What that means is it's made up of different raw materials or constituent materials, including, of course, cement. Now, that's the binding medium material that holds everything together, right? And that can be cementitious materials, of course, such as pozzolans, like fly ash, silica fume, things of that nature. You're going to have water, which, of course, when it comes in contact with cement, causes the chemical reaction we call hydration that forms the paste or the glue that holds everything together. You have your aggregates, which are both sand and the stone. Today, probably all concretes, I think, are using some form of an admixture in there, usually to develop air entrainment, or to reduce the water content, improve workability, things like that. And, of course, all concrete usually has air, either through air entrainment, which is intentional, of course, or in some cases, unintentional air, we sometimes call it. Now, what's really important, I guess, by the definition, though, is that it's a composite material. And that means it's only going to be as good as these raw materials and the process of making the concrete. So this is one reason why, for example, manufacturing in a quality-controlled plant, a tightly-controlled environment, things like that, are extremely important so that we can consistently produce, of course, a high quality of concrete. Now, following along this simple path that says, well, what is precast concrete? Well, simplistically, precast concrete is concrete that is cast elsewhere than in its final position. Now, that's a broad definition. So that means it includes a lot of things. For example, tilt-up. Quite often, you'll probably hear that, well, tilt-up concrete is referred to as a site-cast precast. However, for the purposes of today's presentation, we are going to stay focused on plant-manufactured precast concrete. Now, keep in mind, so precast concrete is manufactured off-site in a controlled environment. And what we see is it's going to provide many additional benefits, things like a high degree of quality control. We talk about several site and sustainability benefits related to that process, all of which we'll be discussing here. But the key thing I'd like to point out is that a precast manufacturing facility, a producer plant, has everything in place. They've been designed to produce high-quality precast concrete on a consistent basis. And that's important, because field operations are obviously different from project to project and are more difficult to try and maintain that controlled environment for concrete. And that obviously matters a lot to concrete. Now, what is prestressed concrete? I'm sure all of you are familiar with concrete is great in compression, but weak in tension. Therefore, we're obviously going to reinforce it with some sort of steel. Rebar is always one of the most common ones, or conventional reinforcing steel. But then you also have prestressing. Now, prestressing is a method of reinforcement, where we take a high-strength steel strand, we pull it into tension, and then basically release that tensile force back into the concrete, of course, after it's reached whatever necessary compressive strength requirements there are. Hence, putting that concrete into compression, which it's good at. There's two real basic methods you're going to do this. Either first, you can use what we do. Most of the plant-produced precast producers use is a pretension method. And that just means those strands are put in tension first. Then the concrete is cast. When the concrete reaches a strength, they release the strands. And of course, again, it puts it into compression. Keep in mind, though, that the strand has a continuous contact all the way through the precast member. So it's uniformly distributed through, basically. In the second method, post-tension, which is often done in the field, the concrete's cast with ducts or tubes in it, if you would. The strand is placed into those tubes. And again, after you reach the required strength, it's brought into tension. And then that force is released. However, the force being released is being transferred really at the ends of the particular concrete piece, usually through anchors and things like that. So that is different than doing a pretensioned approach. Now, there's a lot of benefits to prestressing, of course. For example, you can have an increased load carrying capacity. It allows for greater spans, greater open spans between your column lines, for example. Obviously, being in a compressive type situation, you're hoping to reduce cracks. And you can generally create smaller sections, hence reduce weight and so forth. So depending on your project's location and the design and the needs, all the specifics, usually you're going to utilize some combination of these benefits. And obviously, working with your engineer and your precast producer is really going to help optimize things for your project. Now, let's take a quick look at some of the common elements. Precast comes in many different shapes, many different sizes and things. So we'll explore just some of the most common ones you should be familiar with. First, at the highest level, we really can kind of group it into two major categories. We say that there's architectural precast, commonly used, of course, for building envelopes and for the aesthetic side of things. And then there's structural precast systems, which we use for buildings and parking structures and bridges, primarily, here in the United States. A quick overview of some of these elements here, you can see that things like wall panels and columns and beams, of course, there's flooring and roof elements. We'll look at the most common two, a double T and the hollow-core plank. And there's even stair systems and specialty components like that. But for conversation today, we're going to start with the wall systems. And really, we can break these down into three basic types of wall systems. Now, the first one we just call solid walls. And it doesn't mean, again, it doesn't have fenestration in it or something along those lines. It just means solid concrete. Usually in the thickness of about 48 inches, been around forever here in the United States, commonly used, et cetera. The second group are both of these, really. They're insulated wall systems. One has been sometimes referred to in our industry as a sandwich wall panel, because you have an outer and inner wife of concrete, thicknesses can vary, that are, in essence, sandwiching together this rigid insulation. And in most cases today, that's continuous rigid insulation, which is, of course, very important to meet code. The other system is sometimes referred to as a thin shell system, and the idea is that you have one exterior wife of concrete, it is thinner. Can get down to maybe an inch, inch and a half, maybe up to like three inch range, can vary, depending on manufacturer and stuff. And there is some sort of a backup system to it, usually steel stud. I'll show you an example in a minute here. They actually use concrete as the backup system that makes the attachment to the structure. Main benefit, of course, it reduces weight. In a lot of cases, it can reduce the weight to a comparable panel all the way down to by one third of its weight on the building, which is pretty significant. Now, all of these, of course, are non-load bearing. They can take their own loads and wind loads and things. But in a lot of cases, they can really be designed as load-bearing elements, too, which means they can pick up additional load, transfer floor loads, roof loads, et cetera. Of course, they come in a variety of shapes, and really only start getting limited down to DOT and shipping requirements and stuff of that nature. So to kind of give you a feel for shapes, the most common one here is going to be what we call a wall panel system. These systems can be designed to be either like a horizontal panel, or they could run vertical. These systems can be designed to be what we call in the industry like a closed wall system, which just means that it's closed around the window. All four sides are cast, and the joints would appear maybe, for example, below a demarcation line or something like that. And of course, that provides a lot of tight tolerances around the window unit itself. Makes it a little easier for installation. They can also be designed as more of an open system, which just means the joints are going to appear maybe at the top or at the midpoint of the panel. Again, working those details out with your pre-casters is going to be one of the best ways to approach this, to look at your specific needs for the job and the erection of the job, et cetera. Now, some of the other common shapes, we have spandrel panels, which, as the name suggests, they span between column lines. You can see an example here, where they cover real well for ribbon windows and stuff like that. But they're also commonly used in parking structures. The third component, or piece, if you would, or type of pieces, I guess, would be like column covers and mullions and things like that. And these can be made up in many different combinations to meet the requirements of the envelope system. Now, here's an example of a real picture of solid wall systems here on projects. One thing I like to highlight is that often in solid wall systems, they use what we call a face mix. So if you look on the right here, you'll see there's two different colors of concrete. The idea behind it is the face mix is usually where you're going to have more expensive materials, maybe white cement, for example, or more expensive aggregates, and so forth. And by using a backup mix to it, you can help reduce some of the costs, obviously, because you can use a less expensive mix design to match up or fill in the rest of the panel. Now, here's an example of a project, a fairly recent project, actually. I'm sure most of you have seen this. This is the Perot Museum in Dallas, Texas. And this used what we call, again, a solid wall precast envelope system. And we'll see some other shots of this here in a little bit. Now, here's an example of the sandwich wall, an insulated wall panel system. Again, two whites of concrete sandwiching together, which is insulation. In both of these examples, you see that there has been an embedded thin brick placed on the exterior white of the concrete. And that's going to give us the aesthetic side. And these are connected, of course, by white connectors. Now, these connectors today have really come a long way. A lot of them are coated, or they are composite connectors, things of that nature, because obviously, we're trying to eliminate thermal bridging. The thicknesses of these whites can vary. And a lot of that depends on how this panel is designed. So this can be designed to be a composite panel, which means that both whites are working together to resist load. And it can be designed all the way down to the point where it's really a non-composite panel, and you're relying on interior white to pick up most of your load, and so forth. And then, of course, in those cases, that interior white is going to be much thicker, depending on the loading requirements, project requirements, et cetera. Here's an example of a sandwich wall panel project. This is a dormitory in the Washington, D.C. area, an eight-story dormitory. And everything here you see is precast. I mean, the limestone type of look along the bottom and the sills, it's a thin brick embedded into the precast panels, et cetera, to make a really beautiful and kind of traditional envelope here. Now, here's an example of the thin-shell systems. Over here on the left-hand side, you can see that's a steel stud backup system. On the right-hand side, you can see that's actually concrete, kind of like studs integrated into that. Now, on both of these, today we see a lot of insulation applications being built into it between whatever the backup system is and the exterior white. The one on the right, by the way, is a foundation system used a lot in residential and light commercial and stuff. But again, they're trying to reduce the thickness, obviously reduce weight. Now, a system that's been around for quite some time that really is kind of a thin-shell component here is GFRC, or glass fiber reinforced concrete. And so this is actually sprayed up into the form. Of course, there's glass fiber embedded into that mixture and so forth. And usually, a relatively thin panel, like an inch, for example, an inch and a half, lightweight. You can kind of see on the left here the steel backup frame that's going to make the attachment to the building. One of the great advantages of a GFRC panel is the amount of intricate detail is really evidenced here on the right that can be developed. And so quite often, these are used to do some just amazing architectural things and replicate maybe stone and projects from many, many decades ago and things like that. But of course, at lighter weight and also typically less cost. Here's an example of a thin-shell project. This is an office building in California. And this did use a GFRC precast envelope, if you would. And you can see there's multiple colors that have been utilized here. And actually, if you look down towards the base, you'll see that they did a veneer of granite along the base of the columns and so forth, a little bit of banding a little higher up there on the columns as well. Now, from a structural standpoint, this gives you some actual photos of these components. Of course, at the top here, we see columns and beams and a variety of shapes and things like that and methods of connection. Draw your attention to the beam going across there. That's called an inverted T-beam. Very common to pick up floor and roof components and transfer the loads into the columns. The primary, again, floor and roof components would be a double T over here on the right. I know it's very ingeniously named for the shape. Down at the bottom and the plank you are seeing across top, those are examples of hollow core plank, also used, again, in flooring and roof applications. And then you can see there's stairwell systems over here. The far bottom right over here is what we call a light wall, commonly used in parking structure systems. Obviously, it allows a lot more light through, if you would, into the parking structure, as well as makes it easier to see for security purposes, things like that. From a structural design perspective, precast buildings can be designed as an exterior or interior shear wall system. What a lot of people don't always know is that you can design precast systems to be a frame system. And that includes, really, a full moment resisting frame, which is becoming extremely popular in seismic zones, especially like California. And we have different systems out there, a lot of information on how those designs can be accomplished. We have many buildings built like that now, and it's been very successful. Now, from project application side, precast is very versatile. So quite often, a lot of people don't realize how many applications it actually has. And part of that is, if you think about this, precast really goes from one end of the spectrum to the other. What I mean is, on one side, it's this gray structural system that we use to pick up a lot of load and bridges and things like that. And all the way to the other side, it can be this incredibly colorful and ornate planning and envelope system. And those really are different ends of the spectrum, and sometimes hard to grasp, because there really aren't any other materials that can quite deliver that. So commonly, we see precast used in all types of buildings, from low-rise to high-rise construction, things like offices and retail and theater shopping centers, institutional structures, even residential, a lot of multifamily residential. You also see precast used in manufacturing and industrial stadiums and arenas, for example, data centers, correctional facilities. And this list is quite extensive. It goes on. Even a lot of decorative and ornamental facilities and capacity as well. So if you look at the top upper right here, this is a 60-foot water wall down in Florida, where they utilize precast, not only for the structures behind, but to create this incredible feature for this. I believe it says shopping mall, if I remember correctly. Of course, precast is used in parking. In fact, the majority of the parking structures in the United States are made from precast, pre-stressed concrete. And that includes mixed-use applications. So a lot of these parking structures are combining, of course, retail, office, residential, things like that. And just to kind of highlight from an aesthetic versatility standpoint, if you look at the bottom, these are two examples of what we see as a trend, really, where a lot of parking structures are being used in residential areas. And these are examples of what we see as a trend, really, where a lot of parking structures are being designed to fit in with the surroundings, the surrounding architecture, or campus, or wherever they're located, but to blend really well. So they don't necessarily look like a parking structure always anymore. But it kind of gives you a quick overview of just that versatility, again, aesthetically. Of course, precast is also used extensively in the transportation industry, both in short and long-span bridges, for example. Here in the upper right, this example of a little bit newer technology, which is a U-beam structure, a curved U-beam structure, that's being used quite a bit now, catching on all over the United States. It's also used, of course, in sound walls, noise barriers, even pavement systems and things like that. So that gives you kind of a quick overview of precast, how it's used, how it's made, and stuff. Now let's start talking about high performance. And then we'll, of course, look at how these two relate together. But we'll start with the definition of high performance. And just like concrete, depending on where you go, you're going to see a lot of different definitions. This one is from our federal government. And it says that high performance structures are ones that integrate and optimize on a lifecycle basis, all major high performance attributes. And you can read this pretty extensive list here. It goes on and on in all these different areas. And there's three things I really want to draw your attention to. The first is people say, well, how does sustainability fit with high performance? And as you can see here, sustainability is a big part of it. You can think of high performance as a larger umbrella that encompasses everything we've been doing in sustainable design and sustainable practices and construction. But then challenges us to go beyond that. And that beyond really highlights here, first by saying, can we integrate and optimize all high performance attributes relevant to our structure? And that's kind of a change, because quite honestly, there's always one or two things that are driving our projects. And to be challenged to look at all the relevant attributes to a structure and really seek true optimization across those could be a little bit of a change for us in our design and construction practices. The other component here is to look long term, to take and examine things from a lifecycle approach, not just a first cost approach. So all of us as designers can ask, what would we do different if we were looking at structures from a 50, 60, 70-year service life perspective? Would we use a different material? Would we change something else in the design, things like that? And quite honestly, sometimes first cost may be a little bit more, but save us millions of dollars on the long term as we look at lifecycle costs. And they're saying that that's got to be part of the goal as we go through to high performance. So how Precast fits is Precast concrete is a high performance material that integrates easily with other systems and inherently provides the versatility, efficiency, resiliency needed, along with meeting multi-hazard requirements, et cetera. And the word inherently is really an important part. When we decide to use Precast concrete on a structure, there's a lot of benefits we get that are going to be there, whether we decide to utilize them in our design or not. I'm trying to highlight some of that as we go through these. Now, there's a ton of attributes and benefits that are really, like I said, inherent in working with Precast. We try to organize these around three basic higher levels, versus versatility, again, is thinking of aesthetics, design, even though how the structure is used plays into that. The second grouping is in efficiency, and we're talking about efficiency through the design process, the construction and building process, and then, of course, throughout the operations. And then finally, resiliency, looking at long-term effects, safety, durability, and things of that nature. But let's start with just the versatility's perspective and, of course, looking at aesthetic versatility, which Precast really has an excellent aesthetic versatility. Structures typically are designed to either blend in with the surroundings that we've seen earlier with some of the parking structures. This is a very traditional campus building, this is a dormitory in Illinois, brick, stone, matching with the campus surroundings, et cetera. Or in other cases, buildings are designed to maybe stand out, really make a statement, maybe kind of an iconic sense. And this is another example of more of the other end of the spectrum here. This is Millennium Complex at Penn State University. Obviously, kind of different, does kind of jump out at you and so forth. And the idea is Precast really can help you achieve either end of the spectrum or anywhere in between, because it's very versatile. Precast comes in essentially almost any color. Color can be created from using either the natural materials, such as the aggregates, and see kind of just a real quick sample of aggregates over here on the right. Or color can be achieved by using, for example, the cement itself, the paste we talked about, pigments, or combination of both. And just to highlight some of the color range you can see along the bottom, but this is a Precast piece, one of my projects from years ago. This United States flag, it's about 16 feet tall, all using integral pigments to develop the colors we see here. By the way, it does have all 50 stars and the 13 stripes. And if you saw it in profile, it actually does wave, kind of like into the wind and so forth. But it gives you just an example of what really can be achieved in color, just in pigments and so forth. Now, Precast can be finished through a lot of different techniques, and I'm just going to highlight some of the more common ones today to take a look at. The first one here in the upper left we call Ascast, or sometimes Formed Finish. And as it suggests, it's just coming out of the form. Some advantages, disadvantages, it can be more economical, of course, but you are going to usually have more modeling to it. Today, it's becoming quite popular, as you saw in Perot Museum and other projects, to just use the gray color of the concrete, basically. You can also get into starting to expose the aggregate and the matrix underneath through different techniques. And one way is to use what we call exposed aggregate, but just meaning a chemical surface retarder. This is sprayed or rolled on in the forms, and it basically retards the setting of the cement. So the next morning, when you pull the pieces out, you can blast this off, usually like with water blasting or something like that, and expose your aggregate to different levels. On the right, we see two other pretty common techniques. One is called acid etching at the top. Provides usually that light to medium exposure of the matrix. Usually darkens the surface and the color, but provides a beautiful little sparkle to it, kind of what some people call a sugar cube finish. And then the bottom is, of course, abrasive blasting, a lot of times done with sand or some other abrasive material, but does usually lighten the surface a bit, almost provides a frosted look to it. Now, a couple important notes. If you look here at the right, this is the same mix design. This was just finished using these two different techniques. And so that's one way to introduce more economy into your projects. And you don't have to change out the mix design. That can be a monolithic panel. But you can use different finishing techniques to bring about that different look that you might be needing for your projects. Now, from, of course, precast is made in forms and molds, as we've talked about. So that gives a lot of flexibility to the shapes and the details. You can put in bull noses and different reveals and patterns, all the way to very detailed patterns here, like this large-scale imagery that's being created in this arena. Form liners are commonly used. Usually when we need repetitive patterns, we're trying to simulate other materials, things like wood, for example, or certain stones. And so these have come really a long way in what can be done. You can also veneer precast concrete with different materials. This is one of the most common ones today. This is thin brick. It's actually embedded into the concrete. And these are real clay brick, ranging in thickness from maybe a half, five-eighths, three-quarters of an inch. They're actually set into these form liners, holding them in place. Precast is cast. And what's important is, too, today they've expanded the options to be pretty much just the same as what we see in regular field-laid brick. So all the different colors, shapes, sizes, you can obviously set up different patterns, running bond patterns, stack bonds, soldier courses, et cetera, and really create beautiful details that you can do out there. So you can get all the beauty of these natural materials. But you get the speed, the durability, and the high performance benefits of precast in that process. Here are some examples of limestone being veneered or granite. And by the way, these are more veneer. Usually there is a bond breaker between the precast and these larger, different type stone materials. We've seen marbles being used. We've even seen tile today. And even terracotta is being used more extensively on different surfaces and panels, even load-bearing applications today. Now, you can combine these finishes as well, not just using sandblasting or acid etching, but you can actually combine different materials and finishes into panels. And a lot of benefits. Both of these panels here combine about three different finishes. You can see some brick and stonework, and then, of course, exposed precast in there. A lot of benefits to this. Obviously, things like reducing flashing, detailing, say, around the window sills or the trim areas, reducing the number of trades. So all of this is trying to reduce the construction complexity and making it more efficient. And so you've got to think of how to apply that in your different projects and stuff. A couple quick examples of full buildings here to show and highlight this versus an office building in Canada. Again, form liner work here almost kind of simulates metal panel work in the structure, integrates it nicely with some glass on the curved wall side there. Here's the Perot Museum again in Texas. Again, this is kind of just an as-cast, solid wall panel design, but you can see the incredible formwork that's been done here. And we've got radius panels. We've got canted panels. We have projections coming out as much as eight inches in some of these areas and stuff. So really, just some amazing formwork and detail on the project. This is a very large shopping mall in Mexico. And what's very interesting about this is that is not a veneer stone or natural stone. That's actually the precast. And they used a combination of finishing techniques like acid etching with the pigments and different chiseling techniques and stuff to arrive at this finish. And they did this because it was more economical to do that than to actually try and get all the real stone there to the project. Here's a good example of a completely veneered project. So it's all precast concrete, but it's been veneered with granite at the base, and then limestone on up through the other several stories there of the project. And finally, one more. We'll take a little closer look here at the Millennium Complex. You can see this, again, thin brick embedded in there, a couple different colors of brick, stacked bonds, a couple of trim units, and so forth. You can see how this would be extremely difficult to do this project in traditional film, like brick, as compared to using, obviously, efficiently using precast. OK, so now let's move on. We'll take a look at design versatility here. Design versatility, we offer a lot in the industry in terms of shapes, transferring loads, things along those lines. We can start by just saying precast is a structural material. So the envelope can be designed, really, to carry your floor and roof loads. Think of this. This eliminates redundancy of another system, saves a lot of material and time and cost associated with that other system. While you're creating more usable floor space on that interior of the particular building. So it gives a lot more advantage to take it into consideration and look at it. Other benefits are precast can be in any shape. So obviously, you can make curved panels, as we can see here. Provide some versatility into how we design our load points and optimizing load paths and things like that. Again, kind of highlighting shapes here, you can see the curved U-beams example. Gives you a great idea of the flexibility of precast. Again, thinner, lighter cross-sections, et cetera. And then we also want to look at the use of the structure. Because high-performance buildings really should be helping structures be reused and have some flexibility in their use. And it covers a couple things. We talk about recycled materials, and of course, concrete in general can be recycled, can be ground up and used in other applications, such as road base. A little bit more advanced approach is to reuse an element, because precast concretes are individually engineered elements. They have been disassembled and reused in either an expansion or completely other projects. One of the best examples we've heard about is the stadium down at the bottom here. This is from the 1996 Olympics. And it was all precast stadium. They disassembled a portion of that stadium and reused those components to create four high school stadiums around the area and so forth. You can see one of them here on the right. And if you think about that, that's really a great approach towards sustainability, really minimizing the use of additional materials, energy, et cetera, to create something that is needed out there in the built environment. Also from an interior side, unfortunately, a lot of buildings, I guess they kind of expire their functional use before they expire their service life of the structure, the physical part of it. So precast offers a lot of open space in designs. Like I said, we can span further, can reduce the number of interior columns. We start talking about load design, you can reduce the number of exterior columns, hence opening up a larger floor plate for you and provide more versatility for future use or adaptation. Now from terms of efficiency, you start by looking at the job site, precast made offsite. That allows other work to commence on the site while the precast is being made, such as excavation foundations. Precast also arrives basically ready to install, just in time delivery concepts. You're really minimizing the site footprint. You don't need staging or storage areas necessarily. You can lay down areas, things like that. It also doesn't contribute to waste on the job site, like certain other materials do, dust and things along those lines. Actually, if you were to visit precast plants today, most of them are recycling just about everything from their water to their steel, et cetera. So it's become pretty sustainable in terms of related to waste and things like that. Precast is also erected with a crane, a very small crew. So again, that contributes to having a very tight, small project footprint, if you would. At least, that's all we need. That can be very helpful to the environment and things. And it also comes pretty much cured at your strengths. So you really don't have much impact from weather delays or things like that. So it really speeds up overall project enclosure and project completion times. Then you have ideas around energy and operational efficiency, because that's really the majority of what's contributing to costs. It's also the majority of what's contributing to lifecycle costs, and it's the majority of what's contributing to environmental impact as well. So how a structure operates matters quite a bit when you take a look at this bigger picture. Now, to make an envelope that is truly thermally efficient, one of the first things we have to take a look at is bulk moisture. And obviously, that's a normal expectation. Precast concrete is a face-sealed, what we call a barrier wall system. It's got that low water cementitious ratio, low permeability. It's a high-strength concrete, so it easily resists moisture, bulk rainwater, et cetera, through moisture ingress. So in these face-sealed systems, really, there's a lot of advantages over things like traditional cavity wall designs or even rain screen designs. And typically, they're going to be less expensive, so they'll be more cost effective, if you would. You're eliminating the cavity, and that's a big part, because cavities are where a lot of moisture issues and problems kind of occur. They're difficult, sometimes, to get built correctly. And when problems do occur, well, first, they're not noticeable for some time, and then they're very difficult to get in and repair. So if there is a problem, repair makes it faster, makes it easier to detect, things like that. And it helps reduce the overall construction complexity, too. Now, codes today are really beefing up in terms of insulation and thermal efficiency and stuff. So as you all, I'm sure, are aware, ASHRAE 90.1 is requiring continuous insulation in, I believe, six out of the eight climate zones. And so how do we address that in the envelope? Precast really provides a great option here, because, first of all, most of these insulated systems today are using continuous insulation, which means it goes edge to edge. Remember, the connectors are usually composite or some sort of coded connector without really any measurable thermal conductivity. Precast systems are scalable, so as you need different insulation requirements, it's much easier to increase the thickness of that insulation, for example, relative to maybe a cavity wall system or something like that. Now, that's not all, though. We've also got to deal with continuous air barriers, which are now required by the IECC. Luckily, precast concrete is an air barrier. All precast concrete meets air barrier requirements with no measurable leakage. So whenever you're using that envelope, you've addressed that component of it. And then you still have to take a look at things like the moisture barrier side of things or vapor retarder by code. But if you're using precast at 3 inches or greater, it is also a vapor barrier. In a lot of cases, some of the insulation is also a 3 inches or greater vapor retarder. In a lot of cases, the insulation being used makes it a vapor barrier as well. So when you put it all together, high performance precast, really, it's combining all three. It's providing continuous insulation, continuous air barrier, and the vapor retarder or barrier all in one efficient system. So start thinking now, as you combine all this, boy, this is directly in line with what we just read about integrating and optimizing high performance structures. And we're doing all this while we're trying to reduce some of the risks, some of the detailing headaches, the overall construction time, et cetera. And you start to see how this optimization can take place. Now, there's a couple other areas to discuss. Like I just mentioned, thermal bridging is when you basically pierce through the envelope system or the insulation portion of the envelope system with something that short circuits it, if you will, or conducts heat much better than the other materials around it. Steel's pretty good at conducting heat. That's why we cook with it. So stud-in-cavity construction, for example, usually has a lot of thermal bridging. And so if you look at the ASHRAE code, and you're talking about a steel stud-designed wall, maybe it has a BAT insulation with R19 or R21. But if you look at its actual performance or effective R values, you're going to see they're down to about R8 or R9 in actuality. And that's what you end up really should be using in your design of your HVAC equipment. With precast, it's actually just the opposite. You can calculate material R values in maybe an R14, R15. But your performance R values are going to be much higher. You're going to get up into the R20s, again, depending on specifics for your project and so forth. but you'll notice an extremely advantageous situation there. So precast can provide all of that without thermal bridging, which is important. There's another component that ties into this, and that's called thermal mass. Now again, this is just the idea that concrete has a high heat capacity, so it absorbs heat slowly and releases it slowly as the temperature shifts. And this is highlighted here in the chart. This is a 24-hour model analysis showing three wall systems. And I want to point out, all these wall systems have the same U-factor, which means they're essentially equal from a thermal perspective other than the thermal mass effect. And there's two stud systems being analyzed here, a metal wall and wood stud, and then, of course, a precast concrete sandwich wall panel, which is this one towards the top here. These are recycled. I'd like to highlight, then, that you can see the peak points shift pretty good, actually. But maybe even more importantly is the reduction in magnitude at these points. So when you combine this together, essentially what we're saying is you're using less energy as being required to heat or cool the structure and maintain the targeted set point. And that's really what we're all about here, is trying to reduce that energy consumption. Now, if you calculate this, like I said before, and you get the performance R-values for these and use those, you can even downsize your HVAC system equipment into reducing first costs. Obviously, it's going to run more efficient to help reduce long-term energy costs. And it even reduces the fluctuation, if you would, temperature fluctuation, because it's not forced air necessarily in terms of that quick change. Thermal mass slows down. There's a thermal lag there. So it makes a much more comfortable environment for occupants and stuff. Thermal mass does vary, by the way, all across the US. So to do the analysis, you've got to get into where your project is actually located. And then you start to determine the amount of benefit related to that. Of course, you also want to reduce other materials. So a common example happening today in the precast industry is taking out some of the interior drywall, obviously saving the waste, the material cost, and labor cost of that. So in this project here, these outer walls where the windows are, that's all precast. That's just been smooth troweled and painted. And they've left that exposed to provide a very durable interior surface. Obviously, not going to mold, very durable against dings, dents, things like that. Looking at lifecycle costs, then, of course, you're trying to look at all these things. These all relate to maintenance. Precast doesn't rot. It doesn't require painting. It doesn't degrade. Actually, it gets stronger when it gets wet. So it has a lot fewer maintenance issues. There's less joints, for example, when compared to other systems. I mean, just think of a field-laid brick wall to the panels we saw earlier. All that totals up. And all that totals up to helping you reduce maintenance. Another component we talk about is reducing risk. And really, what we're talking about is risk in design and construction and long-term risk associated with it. So to kind of highlight this, let's go back to that combination panel for a minute. We have three different finishes here combined into one monolithic panel. So first of all, it reduces trades. This could be one trade instead of two or maybe three trades, which is going to simplify communication, responsibility, et cetera. It accelerates construction, because one panel can be set a lot faster than you can get into working with three different trades and coordinating it. But again, it eliminates a lot of the interaction between these three different materials, the detailing, the flashing, things like that, and eliminating some of the joints. And that's part of this strategy, where we think of, well, how do we make an envelope system that is going to be better at resisting moisture and air infiltration or exfiltration that could link into poor energy performance? And see, that's part of it that ties into it. Something else you can take a look at is working with pre-casters very early in the process, maybe through a design assist role. We're seeing a lot more of that in the industry. But you're utilizing their expertise and experience to help you early on in the design process, with the goal of really trying to optimize all of these different things we're talking about here, taking a look and seeing what's relevant to your project and how it could be used to benefit. Now, from the resilience side of things, again, pre-cast concrete's very durable. It's very easy to get a 100-year service life out of concrete. Low water-smoothness ratio, again, high strength, low permeability, it all adds up to the things you're looking for. This is an example. This is a high temple. This has been around for over 60 years. This is actually made out of architectural pre-cast, and construction really began in the 1920s. And you can see, very beautiful, very ornate, and so forth. But just kind of a great example of looking at something that's long-term beauty and long-term durability and so forth. So pre-cast can really meet that high-performance need. Now, another aspect of this, though, goes a little bit further with the idea of resiliency. So durability, you're thinking of, well, I've got something exposed to conditions out there on a regular basis, whereas resiliency is looking at things that might be more unique or extreme on a one-time or intermittent-type basis and so forth. So high-performance structures need to be resilient. That's another part of the challenge. And you can see the definition here that's been tossed around, the idea of looking at multi-hazard protection, and how well can the structure fare, and, of course, how fast can something be put back into service after maybe an extreme event. This is a natural extension of sustainability, if we think about it, because it doesn't make sense to build a great building sustainably and then have it blow away in the wind, basically, during a tornado. Then we kind of have to start all over again. So adding the idea of resiliency seems to make a lot of sense. So the proof is really in seeing. So I'm going to show you three quick, short, little video clips here of some very interesting resiliency-type testing. This first one is with impact testing, because I think all of you are aware in high storms or high wind storms, like hurricanes and tornadoes, flying debris causes most of the damage and injuries out there. So we're going to look at four different wall systems here, where they take a two-by-four and fire it as a projectile at rain with a vinyl siding, like most of the houses in America. And the next couple are studs with wood. The second one's just going to be a two-by-six steel frame structure. Again, two-by-four penetrates fairly easily, as any other flying projectile-type system, again, insulated. And the two-by-four is turned into two-picks. Very resilient. I think that it's obviously common in California and some other areas, but something we do have to take into consideration. So this is a video of some testing that was done at the University of California out there. And it was subjected to many different earthquake conditions, including the maximum considered earthquakes. It didn't fail. It didn't fall down. Actually, it did very, very well. And today, these results are being used to update the seismic design codes all across the US, actually. And the last one, we're going to take a look at blast testing. Could be, for example, unfortunately, from a terrorist attack, but something along those lines. This is being done at the Tyndall Air Force Base down in Florida. And these, again, are insulated sandwich-wall-type panels. And they're being exposed to many different charges, strength of blast at different distances, and so forth. And you can see here in the slow motion, the blast wave as it hits the structure. You'll see the panels deflect. They're not going to fail. They are pre-stressed as they absorb that energy, and then actually start to rebound, and so forth. But it's this type of work and data that's used for a lot of things. In this case, it's actually helped reduce the standoff distances required by the GSA and other governmental groups and stuff it provides for us. Now, another aspect to consider when you're thinking of durability and things around safety, of course, is creating a safe and healthy indoor environment. PRECAST doesn't admit any VOCs, doesn't have any VOCs. It's not a food source for mold. Obviously, we talked about it's one of the fastest building systems out there. So rapid enclosure helps keep moisture and dust and things like that out. And it's a great sound insulator, kind of keeping noises on one side where you prefer them to be. As we saw in the videos, it provides that multi-hazard protection. And it also provides inherent passive fire protection. So you don't have to do anything here. You don't have to rely on any systems. It doesn't burn. That helps save lives. All this together becomes an important component of, obviously, saving lives. So now that we've gone through that, I want to take a minute and just talk a little bit about certification. Projects are made up of thousands of materials and components. And all of which have to meet some form of specification. So it's really important to understand and require the appropriate certification programs for those specific elements. So let's kind of take a little look at how these work. We'll start off with some basic definitions. First, what is QA? First, what is QA? What is quality assurance? Well, essentially, it's the big picture. It includes everything from the knowledge, the programs, the activities, the documentation. I mean, everything in that big picture. And then the other words we hear, of course, is quality control. And the difference is quality control is those activities. That's the actual inspection, the testing. So quality control is part of a QA program. It does not make a QA program in and of itself. So both these are really important. And they should be set up, in our case, and many others that are set up in the manufacturing facility, should exist for all products and systems. However, none of us are really experts in everything. So it makes it more difficult to know what the appropriate QA program should be. Say, for example, like elevators or something like that. I would have no idea what the appropriate program would be to test those. So then I know I don't want them to fail. So this is where certification comes in. Certification is a program that helps check the actual QA program itself. Certification programs make sure that all the essential components of that QA system are there, that they're present, and they're functioning correctly. Because we want the highest probability of making sure that whatever the product or material it is we're purchasing are going to meet, or preferably even exceed, specifications that we've designed to. So certification programs do this. They help assure, really, all stakeholders in the project that manufacturers and the companies that are manufacturing the product subscribe to national standards. They're not just using their own standards or some sort of localized approach to things, that they do have a comprehensive quality system or program in place, as well as that they're being verified in some way. They've been audited to assure that they're compliant. So like in PCI certification, we require two, at least two, unannounced audits each year by independent engineers to make sure that all this is being followed, et cetera. Now a little bit of our specifics. PCI certification is a complete program, meaning it covers the production of the panels, it covers the erection of the panels, and the personnel involved in the quality side of things. It also provides kind of a level playing field, if you would, so that you have pre-qualified bidders, kind of a uniform yardstick, because all companies have proven their commitment to quality. And this is important. As you're out there bidding and working and getting your project specified, remember, quality is a part of your culture. It's not something that you can turn on or off just for one job. It really needs to be something you do on a regular basis, every day. It becomes, again, a part of your culture and world. A question we get often is cost issues related, and say, well, if I use certification required, is it going to cost more? The answer, really, is no, not really. Think of it this way. When you start looking at where those costs come from, the fabricator or the producer, whoever's making things, usually the majority of the cost associated with being certified is the cost of doing it right. It's the cost that a national institute or organization has said, these are the proper steps to ensure the highest probability that you're going to make this to the standards. And so maybe one question to ask is, if somebody's saying, well, we're not going to be certified, don't worry about it, is, well, what is the consequence to quality and safety for that? I mean, what are they not doing? What is the increased risk assumed by you, maybe as a designer or an owner of a project? For example, something as simple as saying, well, what happens to the project if it's late? I mean, if it's a revenue-generating project, what are the difficulties? How much money are you losing? Things like that. What's the bottom line? So maybe just a different way to kind of consider when you start thinking about costs. It's important that you check the specifications. And in our program, at least at the Institute, we look not only at our specifications, but we look at project specifications, too, because sometimes project specifications are more stringent than industry specifications. It's also important to identify who's qualified to do what work. So for example, in the precast industry, we actually have four different categories, if you would, or subcategories of certification. And that's because it takes different requirements to produce an architectural panel, which we put in the A1 category, than it does to produce a bridge girder, which would be part of the B category. So it's important that you not only require, in the precast industry, PCI certification, but that you correctly confirm that your bidders are actually certified in the appropriate categories to make sure, again, that highest probability of success for everything. Of course, certification, very widely used. PCI certification is one of the most widely used ones, actually, in the construction industry. You can see here, a list gives you kind of an overview of all the different federal groups and, of course, MasterSpec and things like that. And the whole goal here is that as design becomes as built, basically. And no matter what certification you're using for whatever industry, it is important that you require certification really should be done from the technical institutes of that industry, because it ties directly into their body of knowledge. And after all, that's where the design methodology, the codes, et cetera, that's where it comes from. It comes from that same body of knowledge. So who else is in a better position to understand what a comprehensive quality assurance program should look like and how it should be administered to achieve, obviously, the ultimate goal here and the end results? So we can start to wrap up here. First of all, we talked about high performance structures and what they are. So there's really three big things. Number one, they challenge us to integrate and optimize all relevant attributes for a project. So take a look at it. Don't leave things on the table. There's usually a lot of other added benefit that can be incorporated into the design, which will affect long-term performance and lifecycle costs. Focus on the long-term performance ties right in with it trying to reduce lifecycle costs, not just first costs. And of course, they are built sustainably. So we're not throwing anything out the window. But they're adding on, challenging us to look at a resiliency perspective, too. Can we have that structure survive that storm? Can it be there? And what will it look like in 50, 60, 70 years, et cetera? High performance materials, of course, must be versatile, efficient, and resilient and provide that long-term performance as a material or a system, basically. Precast concrete, it is versatile, right? We saw an endless array of colors and finishes and textures. So it's very easy to achieve your goals from an aesthetic standpoint and can do so efficiently. You can combine the finishes and reduce risks and costs and, like I said, it really builds upon itself with a lot of efficiency built into it when you start looking at it from that perspective. You can use it as a structural system and an envelope system. We talked about reducing, for example, exterior columns, opening up space, reducing costs associated with redundant systems. It can be recycled and reused. Obviously, that's pretty sustainable if you can get to the point where you're just reusing some systems and materials again. It facilitates easily adapting structures, trying to make functional use changes, maybe, so the service life of the structure can be realized. Precast is also very efficient. Accelerates construction, one of the quickest building systems, really, we have available to us, which can add up to even more revenue generation, depending on what your project type is. Smaller footprint, manufactured off-site, so it's going to have less negative effects to the project site and the environment. Obviously, a big one, combines continuous insulation, continuous air barriers and vapor barriers into one efficient system. Along with all these other things we've been talking about, and that's probably one of the big ones that reduces complexity, but improving overall energy performance of our structures. And all that's there and available in most precast systems. And energy efficiency can make a difference of more than 30% over code. We have reports now coming in of buildings that are performing 40% better of code, the minimum codes, based on some of these systems, et cetera. And all that adds up to reducing your overall lifecycle costs, risk and coordination details, things like that. And of course, as you've seen, precast is being designed and built with a very high degree of quality control in that factory control type environment. Don't forget about resiliency. It's important to be very durable. Precast can easily provide that 100-year service life. So we've easily seen, also kind of inherently, really provides that multi-hazard protection. Then as you get into specific situations, you can design above for, for example, seismic design, things like that. And it provides, of course, inherent fire protection. So if you combine that with some other systems, you really have a great fire protection system out there. Helps improve indoor environmental comfort, as we talked about, no VOCs, no mold, excellent sound insulation, et cetera.

high performance precast concrete structures

high performance design

precast concrete

versatility

efficiency

structural versatility

energy efficiency

durability

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