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Development of steel-timber composite system for large scale construction

The building industry is responsible for 40% consumption of natural resources and 30% consumption of energy. Furthermore, approximately 30-40% of solid waste and greenhouse gases are generated by the construction industry. Accordingly, there is a need for developing efficient construction methods and structural systems which are robust and reliable as well as economical and sustainable with the minimum impact on the environment. Timber is a renewable resource and it has the lowest embodied energy and the ability to sequester carbon throughout its lifecycle. Furthermore, the life cycle greenhouse gas emission and the cost of production for engineered wood are lower than steel and reinforced concrete. In addition to operational energy efficiency, constructing structures in timber can significantly reduce their carbon footprint. In this paper, a novel and efficient structural system that comprises steel beams and prefabricated timber slabs is developed and tested under short-term service and ultimate limit state loading conditions. In the proposed steel-timber composite (STC) system, bolt and self-tapping screws are employed to transfer shear between steel beam and prefabricated timber slab and provide a composite connection with a near full composite action. The proposed composite system has the advantage of being light-weight compared with other types of composite floors (i.e. steel-concrete and timber-concrete composites) and also it can significantly improve speed of construction and accordingly reduce the cost of constructing tall buildings. Furthermore, the proposed steel-timber composite (STC) system can immensely facilitate deconstruction and future reuse and/or recycling of materials.

Author(s):

Amirhossein Hassanieh    
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW
Australia

Hamid Vali Pour    
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW
Australia

Stephen Foster    
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW
Australia