Background
Composite floor framing systems, by far the most ubiquitous type of structural steel framing for commercial and institutional buildings, are not reusable at end-of-life. Conventional composite floor systems are therefore not the best choice for reducing the long-term environmental impacts of building materials. The objectives of the proposed research are to develop new structural system concepts and establish comprehensive life-cycle assessment strategies for deconstructable steel and composite steel/concrete construction to facilitate DfD coupled with the use of recycled materials in sustainably optimized construction. The experimental component of the research will focus on developing prototype concepts for deconstructable composite floor systems that may be used within a complete, bolted, deconstructable structural steel framing system.
Goals and Objectives
The objectives and expected outcomes of the project include:
1) development of prototype structures and preliminary design assessment for the deconstructable composite framing system
2) advancement of the methodologies for conducting environmental life-cycle assessment of deconstructable systems
3) quantification of deconstructable composite connection behavior through conducting full-scale component tests of the clamping connections proposed in this research
4) conducting full-scale experimental tests of the proposed deconstructable composite floor system subjected to gravity and diaphragm forces from lateral loading to validate the integrity of the system details and to explore the limits of response and the progression of damage of the system
5) conducting nonlinear analyses of a parametric series of deconstructable floor plates to investigate the response
6) developing design strategies for deconstructable steel framing systems within the context of AISC design.
RESULTS
A summary of experimental results are provided below: