Long Span and High-rise

Steel Construction
C&S SEMINAR

20th April 2007

i-Connect room, 1st storey Surbana
One, 168 Jalan Bukit Merah
Singapore

J Y Richard Liew
Ph.D, P.Eng (S
( Spore
pore),
), CEng
CEng,, MIStructE
MIStructE,,
Associate Professor
Director, Hazard, Risk and Mitigation Programme
Department of Civil Engineering
National University of Singapore
Email:cveljy
Email: cveljy@
@nus
nus..edu
edu..sg

2007-4-24
 Sustainable and Buildable Steel
Construction

Quality Steel is a high quality, dimensionally accurate material

Efficiency/speed Steel components are pre-fabricated in efficient
factory processes, and installed rapidly on site minimising
the use of site labour
Light Weight Steel has a higher strength-to-weight ratio; less
requirement on foundation.
Aesthetics Attractive appearance; long span floor beam system up to 20m
free span
Minimum waste Steel construction is not wasteful in production, and
all waste can be recycled
Recycling Steel can be recycled and reused at the end of life. 50% of
current steel use is from a recycled source
Re-use Steel components can be dismantled and re-used
Buildability of Large Volume
Space Frame Structures

1. Single integrated elements or system

2. Simplified joint design to facilitate
construction
3. Speed of Construction
Minimise temporary works/ low-level working
Maximise off-site fabrication
Exploit high strength products to reduce weight
Minimise applied fire protection
 Integrated Roof Systems
Integrated metal roof on steel trusses

Metal roof on steel trusses or beams

Single Integrated Element
Singapore Changi International Airport Hangar 5
- Before Lifting
Main Trusses (92m) are rigidly welded
Secondary trusses are bolted.

SIA Hangar 5
 Singapore Changi International Airport Hangar 5
-85 m x72m Single Integrated Roof System
Minimise temporary works/ low-level working
Temporary ~27.0 M
Walkways &
Working
Platforms

Strand
Lattice Jack
Column

0.0
M

A
11

Power
Pack
Hydraulic
Hoses
21 J
Singapore Changi International Airport Hangar 5
- Preparation of Heavy Lifting
Singapore Changi International Airport Hangar 5
- After Lifting
Sports Complex Roof
- Curved arches
 3-Segment construction
(16m, 27.67m) Need Temporary
Need 2 cranes forSupports
erection

10 ton x 12m webbing slings

10ton Chain Block to control &

adjust the level & displacement

9.5m Overhang Cantilever

60 Degree
(10m, 15.67m) 60 Degree (22m, 15.3m)
8m Overhang
Cantilever Temporary
13m
Erection Plate

1mm 2mm
2mm 3mm
15.8KN

Temporary Tower
Temporary Tower Support 2mx2m
Support 2mx2m 7.5m
6m 31KN
(CG)

38.65m
38.59m

(0, 0) 3.9KN 2m 3.9KN

Lateral stability during installation
The Whampoa Footbridge use of tubular sections
The Whampoa Footbridge

60m
PROPOSED WHAMPOA FOOTBRIDGE

TTJ/ER/PROP-03
Lift footbridge to barge
Pull the bridge
to the other
end

Erection
completed in
the morning
Suntec City Convention Center
(120m x 160m)
Fabrication
done on the
floor slab
 Keppel Distribution Park

Six warehouses: 120m x 90m each

(Ss = 0.95)

Preassembled Industrial processes for systemizing

space frames and prefabricating materials
Building services or part of the roof cladding can be pre-installed on the ground before lifting
 Pre-assembled
space frames

Bolted Joints
Avoid site welding
Preinstalled on the ground using ball-jointed space frame system
Lifting of steel roof
 Economy of Steel Joints
Rigid joints cost more than
nominally pinned joints
Joints that require a large amount
of stiffening are more expensive
Connections which require special
jigs to fabricate will be relatively
expensive.
Site welded joints cost more than
field bolted joints.
 Rigid joints with many stiffeners
Congested node Overlapping Joint
 Non over-lapping joint over-lapping joint

Bolted joint to avoid site

To avoid node congestions welded node welding
Reinforced Rigid Joints
Non-reinforced Flexible Joint
D

brace

ce
bra
xl
La B

B
90 -
A A xl
La

chord chord

N
M

(a) Axial Displacement (b) In-Plane Rotational Displacement

 Additional of connectors or nodes
adds weight and increases the cost by
10-15%.

Can be avoided if precision fabrication

methodology is adopted.
3-D detailing and joint modelling
 Prefabrication &
Accuracy
In-line production based on
Computerized Numerically
CNC Drilling/Cutting Line Controlled machinery. CNC Hole Drilling/ Punching

Sea Front
Access

FCAW Welding
CNC Plate Profile Cutting Machine CNC Pipe Profile Cutting Machine
CNC Pipe Profiling
 Fire engineering of large span
structures
Fire Detection/
fire safety design Fire suppression
Alarm

Realistic Fire
Modeling, Structural
CFD, Parametric fire, etc Response
Heat Transfer
Analysis Calculation
FEM NLFEA

Liew, J Y R, Tang, L K and Choo, Y S (2002), Advanced analysis for performance-

based design of steel structures exposed to fires, J of Structural Engineering,
ASCE, USA, 128(12), 1584-1593
 Degradation of steel
strength and stiffness
% of normal value
Strength and stiffness
reductions very similar 100 Effective yield strength
for S235, S275, S355 (at 2% strain)
structural steels and 80
hot-rolled reinforcing SS
bars. (SS)
60
SS
40

20 Elastic modulus

0 300 600 900 1200

Temperature (C)
Minimise passive fire protection
Fire protection is not required!
Fire protection is not required!
 MAJOR STEEL BUILDING
PROJETS IN SINGAPORE

Name No. of Storey Weight (tons) Yr Completed

OUB Centre 67* 11,000 1986

Treasury Building 52 15,000 1986
Ocean Tower 30 5,800 1991
John Hancock Tower 26 2,350 1992
Hitachi Tower 37 6,000 1992
The Concourse 42 8,000 1992
UOB Plaza 66* 10,000 1992
Republic Plaza 66* 8,217 1995

*Tallest in Singapore, 280m

 STEEL BUILDING PROJETS IN SINGAPORE
(Cont)

Name No. of Storey Weight (tons) Yr Completed

UE Square 18 2,000 1996
Suntec City NA 27,000 1996
Bank of China 37 3,000 1997
Singapore Post Centre 14 7,000 1999
Springleaves Tower 37 4,200 2000
Cuppage Centre 10 3,000 2000
Capital Tower 52 9,600 2000
One Raffles Link 8 3,000 2000
ParkView Square 30 8000 2002
ORQ 50 8,000 2006
 Buildability of Multi-storey Steel
Building
Standardization - repetition of grids, sizes of
components and connection details
Simplicity - simple building construction
systems and installation details.
Speed of Construction

Exploit long span advantage

Reduce no. of floor joints.
Integrate building services
Adopt composite construction
 Typical commercial building
Long Span Construction reduce floor joints
Integration of building services
Composite Truss
Suntec City
 Composite Truss System

>25m
 OUB Building

Hybrid
system of
steel
frames with
concrete
950
core

20m
 Shallow floor systems

A wide flat plate is

welded to the
underside of H-
section.

The wide plate supports

the precast concrete slab
reducing the overall
thickness of the floor.
 Advantages of shallow floor
systems
Shallow floor depth reduces the overall
height of the building
Flexibility of service layout

One-hour fire resistance

because major parts of the
steel section is encased in
concrete.

Longer periods can be

achieved by protecting the
exposed bottom flange
 Deep metal decking
Deep metal deck permits the use of in-situ concrete
acting compositely with the metal deck.
This reduces the dead load of the floor and removes
the need to manoeuvre heavy precast sections into
place.
Metal decking
Steelwork ready to receive
decking
Placing metal decking
Decking in place
Pumping concrete
 Comparison of composite
flooring systems
Beam + Total steel
Overall floor Building Floor slab
Building A slab weight per
zone height dead load
depth floor area

STRUCTURAL FORM mm mm m KN/m2 Kg/m 2

Slimflor with pre-cast slab 237 550 13.0 3.0 43.4

Slimflor with deep metaldeck

305 650 13.4 2.8 51.7
(unpropped)
Slimflor with deep metal deck (propped
295 650 13.4 2.7 42.2
deck, unpropped beam)

Composite beams & composite slab 435 800 14.0 2.0 38.9

Cellular beams with composite slab 775 1100 15.2 2.0 46.6

Composite beams with web openings 725 1050 15.0 2.0 50.2
 Summary on Composite Floor
System

Large column free spaces often require

deep beams
Service integration reduces overall depth
Shallow floor systems combine floor and
slab in the same vertical space reducing
the overall structural depth.
 Composite Columns
Tube used as permanent form work
 2<1+1 Advantages of CFSTs

> + High strength and fire resistance

High stiffness and ductility

Restraint to local buckling by

Circular concrete

Omission of formwork, reducing

construction cost and time
> OR

Square and rectangular

`

Concrete filled Tubular Column

Applications of CFTs
 Steel Core CFT (SC-CFT)

Slim column size

No fire protection
Internal steel core can resist the service
load during fire.

Flat slab
construction
 Ultra-high Strength
Concrete Filled Columns
Latest Innovation
(HSCF) Ultra high strength
concrete; 200MPa

Tube-in-tube Normal concrete,

35 MPa
composite
Punching shear connector
columns
(encased in slabs, protected from fire)
Tube in tube columns
 d d t
Ultra high strength

D2
D D D1 concrete (180MPa)

t2 Normal
concrete
RC CFT HSCFT

Number Column Diameter (mm)

of stories RC CFT HSCFT
12 900 650 500
30 1500 1100 750
Save 1.9m2
50 1800 1400 900 per column

Column Size reduce by half

Speed of Construction

2 Steel columns &

Steel beams 1 Central Core wall

3 Metal decking

4 Casting of
concrete
Composite beams

Composite floor slab

5 Composite
unfilled columns 6 Fire protection &
Architectural
 Column Free
Space

Project Capital Tower

Architectural RSP Architects, Planners &
Consultant Engineers (Pte) Ltd
52-storey office Structural Consultant Maunsell Consultants
building with six (Singapore) Ptd Ltd
Main Contractor Parsons Brinckerhoff
levels of basement Consultant Pte Ltd
car park Client CapitaLand Commercial
Limited
Construction cost US$152.0 million
Construction Period 29 months
Gross Floor Area 95,5545 m2
Buildability Scores 81
Buildability Features

Standardised grids, beam spans and

symmetrical layout about central axis

Autoclimb Slip Form

Construction Sequence
Concrete filled Column
Composite column
Finplate connection
Through-plate connection
Reverse channel- and T-section
connections
 ORQ 50 storey building

(b)

(a) (c)
Typical Steel
Residential
Building
 Top Track Joints &
fasteners

Integrated Dry Wall Panel

finished with
Steel Stud Lafarge Joint
Compound
Acoustic Insulation
(if required)

Fasteners on first
layer @ 400mm Fasteners @
centres 200mm centres
2 layers 15mm max staggered on
Plasterboard on edges
both sides

Fasteners
Bottom Track 10mm-15mm
from edge of
sheet
Outlook for Structural Steel
in Singapore
Constructional steel usage (based on
floor area) presently lags behind UK,
US and Japan; Singapore being 12%
commercial, and 1% residential.
Indonesia bans sand export to
Singapore (6/2/07). Cost of
concrete increases by more than
double. Steel is one of the
alternatives being seriously
considered.
Construction demand up from
S$11.5B (2005) to S$16.1B (2006).
Year 2007 forecast is S$18B.
Government attracts offshore, oil
and gas industries. Strong demands
for rigs, ships and process facilities.
Accredited Structural Steel
Fabricators Scheme: elevate
specialist contractors to higher
platform in construction industry.
BCA/SSSS trains steel Supervisors
and engineers for the industry.
National steel codes with reference
to Europe and Hong Kong.
Demand for structural steel has
increased for the past 2 years. Next
 Conclusions
Use reusable steel frame and percast concrete to
reduce site labor, increase productivity and quality
for sustainable construction.
Use composite design for long span beam, compact
floor, smaller column size, and better fire and
structural resistance.
Numerous projects provide illustration of the
benefits of buildable design using composite
construction.
Successful implementation requires close
collaboration and information sharing between
various parties.