Steel-Concrete Composite Shell Roofs: Structural Concept and Feasibility

Abstract

This paper describes a new structural system, namely steel-concrete composite shells, for enclosing large spaces and presents test and numerical simulation results to demonstrate its feasibility. These composite shells are formed by pouring concrete on a thin stiffened steel base shell which serves as both the permanent formwork and the tensile steel reinforcement. The thin steel shell, constructed by bolting together open-topped modular units consisting of a base plate with surrounding edge plates, is a steel shell with thin stiffeners in both directions. The new system retains all the benefits of thin concrete shells, but eliminates the need for temporary formwork and minimises the required falsework. In this paper, the background to the development of this new structural system is first given, followed by a description of its structural features. Advantages of this new structural system over existing systems are next discussed. Possible failure modes of the new structural system are also outlined. Finally, a study to demonstrate the feasibility of constructing these shell roofs of large spans with very thin steel sheets and a limited amount of shoring is presented. In this feasibility study, a finite element model was developed for bolted steel arches as a conservative approximation of bolted steel shells, and was verified using results from simple connection tests. Both the connection tests and the verification of the finite element model are given in this paper before presenting the results from the parametric study.

Keywords

shell roofs comshells composite construction structural system buckling connections finite element analysis

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

ABAQUS (2003). ABAQUS standard user's manual, version 6.3. BSEN1002–1 (2001). Metallic Materials-Tensile Testing-Part 1: Method of Test at Ambient Temperature, European Committee for Standardization, Brussels.

Bradford

M.A.

Wright

H.D.

and Uy

(1998). “Short and long-term behaviour of axially loaded composite profiled walls”, ICE Proceedings: Structures & Buildings, Vol. 128, pp. 26–37.

Al-Emrani

and Kliger

(2003). “FE analysis of stringer-to-floor-beam connections in riveted railway bridges”, Journal of Constructional Steel Research, Vol. 59, pp. 803–818.

Bursi

O.S.

and Jaspart

J.P.

(1997). “Calibration of a finite element model for bolted end plate steel connections”, Journal of Constructional Steel Research, Vol. 44, No. 3, pp. 225–262.

IEAust (1991). “Binishell collapse: Causes of accident finally public”, Engineers Australia, Vol. 8, pp. 27–28.

Jefferson

A.D.

and Wright

H.D.

(1996). “Finite element simulation of dual-skin composite structures”, Structural Engineering Review, Vol. 8, No. 2/3, pp. 115–131.

Link

R.A.

and Elwi

A.E.

(1995). “Composite concrete-steel plate walls: Analysis and behaviour”, Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 121, No. 2, pp. 260–271.

Medwadowski

S.J.

(1998). “Concrete thin shell roofs at the turn of the millennium”, Current and Emerging Technologies of Shell and Spatial Structures, Proceedings of the IASS Symposium, Edited by Abel

Astudillo

and Srivastava

N.K.

, pp. 9–22.

Oehlers

D.J.

(1993). “Composite profiled beams”, Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 119, No. 4, pp. 1085–1100.

10.

Teng

J.G.

(2001). “Steel-concrete composite shells for enclosing large spaces”, Proceedings of International Conference on Steel and Composite Structures, Pusan, Korea, 14–16 June, pp. 403–409.

11.

(1997). “Long term service-load behaviour of simply-supported profiled composite slabs”, ICE Proceedings: Structures & Buildings, Vol. 122, No. 2, pp. 193–208.

12.

and Bradford

M.A.

(1995). “Ductility of profiled composite beams-Part I: Analytical study and Part II: Experimental study”, Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 121, No. 5, pp. 876–882.

13.

Wheeler

A.T.

Clarke

M.J.

and Hancock

G.J.

(2000). “FE modeling of four-bolt, tubular moment end-plate connections”, Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 122, pp. 1307–1316.

14.

Wright

(1998). “Axial and bending behaviour of composite walls”, Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 124, No. 7, pp. 758–764.

15.

Wong

H.T.

(2005). Behaviour of Steel-Concrete Composite Shell Roofs, PhD Thesis, Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

16.

Wright

H.D.

Evans

H.R.

and Harding

P.W.

(1987). “The use of profiled steel sheeting in floor construction”, Journal of Constructional Steel Research, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 279–295.