News Detail

ACI 318 at Home and Abroad

2/1/2009

Two events occurred in 1904 that would have long- lasting implications affecting the development of reinforced concrete in the United States and worldwide. The National Association of Cement Users (NACU) was created and later changed its name to the American Concrete Institute in 1913. The Joint Committee on Reinforced Concrete was also formed with representatives from the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association (later to become AREA), and the Association of American Portland Cement Manufacturers (later to become PCA).

NACU’s first participation in the development of building code requirements for reinforced concrete was a report published in 1908 establishing rules for the design of reinforced concrete structures based on ultimate strength theory. In 1910, NACU issued Standard No. 4, "Standard Building Regulations for the use of Reinforced Concrete." This document was updated in 1920 as ACI Standard Specification No. 23, covering material specifications, construction requirements, detailing, and design rules for slabs, girders, beams, columns, walls, and foundations. In 1936, ACI published "Building Regulations for Reinforced Concrete (ACI 501-36T)," developed by ACI Committee 501, Standard Building Code, with the support of the Committee on Engineering Practice of the Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute.

At the same time, the Joint Committee produced several reports on reinforced concrete design. The third Joint Committee, comprising members from ACI, AIA, AREA, ASCE, ASTM, and PCA, started work in 1930 and by 1940 published its final report, "Recommended Practice and Standard Specifications for Concrete and Reinforced Concrete." By 1941, both the Joint Committee recommendations and ACI regulations were merged in a single document reported by ACI Committee 318 and published for the first time as "Building Regulations for Reinforced Concrete (ACI 318-41)."

This 1941 publication merged all U.S. design recommendations for reinforced concrete into a single document suitable for adoption by the model and city building codes. It immediately acquired world-class standing as a practical set of rules for design and construction of reinforced concrete structures that at the same time incorporated the tremendous amount of experimental research performed on reinforced concrete in the U.S. since the early 1920s. This reputation was enhanced in the ensuing years by landmark developments such as rules for ultimate strength design in ACI 318-56, requirements for the design of prestressed concrete in ACI 318-63, and earthquake-resistant design in ACI 318-71, just to mention a few. Almost without exception, textbooks on reinforced concrete throughout the world present ACI 318 as one of the leading documents on reinforced concrete design and construction and discuss the content and requirements of the ACI Building Code.

Many national building codes have benefited from the advances included in ACI 318 throughout the years. There are some 21 countries worldwide that base part or all of their national building codes on ACI 318 provisions. For example, the African code now under development will likely include seismic design sections from ACI 318.

Recently, Chile adopted ACI 318-05 by reference into its national building code with only a few exceptions mainly dealing with materials standards and other local differences. The other countries in Latin America, except Brazil and Bolivia, have reinforced concrete requirements based on ACI 318 in their national codes.

There have been authorized translations of ACI 318 into Spanish published in Mexico, Chile, and Colombia before, but for the 2002 version, the ACI Board of Direction approved the production of an official Spanish translation. An ACI 318 subcommittee was established and put in charge of the translation, which was approved by the subcommittee and later by the full 318 Committee under the same consensus procedures that apply to all ACI documents. ACI signed agreements for ACI 318S-08 to be printed locally in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, and Peru. ACI has also granted authorization for translations of ACI 318 into Chinese and Arabic.

ACI Committee 318 has started work on a total overhaul of the document in presentation, organization, and content, with the goal of being completed for the 2014 version. I am sure that the result will just reaffirm the standing of ACI 318 both at home and abroad.

Luis E. García
American Concrete Institute
luis.garcia@concrete.org

Back to Memo List