Author(s)

EUGENE BOADI-DANQUAH, BRIAN ROBERTSON, MATTHEW FADDEN, ELAINA J. SUTLEY & JOE COLISTRA

Abstract

Rapid construction, modularity, deconstruction, and reconfiguration facilitate economy and sustainability allowing for changes in a building’s use over time. Typical one-way composite steel/concrete floor systems lend themselves to terminal construction practices that make assumptions about the occupancy and usage needs that must last through the life of the structure. To address this, a lightweight rapidly constructible and reconfigurable modular steel floor (RCRMSF) system that utilizes two-way bending behavior and cold-formed steel building materials has been developed. RCRMSF improves upon the efficiency benefits of traditional composite steel/concrete flooring systems, reducing beam and girder usage and size, and allowing for highly flexible building configurations and mobility. The system con- sists of a series of prefabricated panels composed of a grid of cold-formed steel channels running in orthogonal directions sandwiched together by steel plates. A simple performance assessment has been formulated and a finite element model parametric study has been carried out in the Abaqus finite ele- ment analysis (FEA) software. The results of the developed performance assessment and FEA study show that RCRMSF systems are suitable for rapidly constructible buildings in terms of strength and serviceability, providing an initial step to fully modular and reconfigurable steel buildings.

Keywords

design for reuse, finite element analysis, innovative steel structures, modular buildings, rapid construction, steel floors.