Executive Summary

Precast or reinforcing concrete with steel improves strength and durability. Rebar is the

most common form of concrete reinforcement. It is typically made from steel, manufactured with

ribbing to bond with concrete as it cures. There are different yield strength rebar. Most common

rebar is ASTM 615 fy=60ksi. Concrete has no ductile capacity and is brittle in nature whereas

rebar have a well-defined yield point before they fracture. In order to make the fracture

mechanism ductile in nature, we use rebar in the concrete. During seismic loading we have

horizontal motion in the building. This motion creates forces in the floor diaphragm that is

resisted by floor to floor connection. These floor to floor connections take these forces to the

seismic resisting elements where they take the forces to the foundation. For high seismic areas,

designs are based on heavy reinforcement. Reason for heavy reinforcement is so they can

resist seismic forces. Instead of structure failing instantly, we have considerable amount of time

and deflection so that people can evacuate at the time of seismic event. We have precast

frames and moment resisting frames that are reinforced in a special way prescribed in the

building code to resist these seismic forces. In this report, different types of seismic resisting

system and their connection are discussed.

Precast concrete with its amazing compressive strength has shaped the structures in the

new direction. The use of steel rods in precast or concrete is the oldest technology of mankind.

Embedding steel bars into concrete increases the materials tensile strength, allowing concrete

to cure to be used in the applications like precast frames or beams. This works well because of

the steel inherent tensile strength. For effective steel reinforcement in any application, the size

or area, strength and precise placement of bars must all be carefully considered. Fortunately,

this is a well-studied area, and precast manufacturers have access to comprehensive

specifications and well-developed codes and tools when designing new elements