Prefabricated Floor and Roof Panels with Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC)

This paper describes an investigation of prefabricated modular floor and roof panels comprised of a thin-walled Engineered Cementitious Composite (ECC) slab and a steel truss substructure. The design, manufacturing and structural behavior of the composite panels are described and their structural behavior is compared to that of conventional hollow core decks. The features of the composite panels include light weight, high loading capacity and adequate stiffness, a modular manufacturing process with adaptability to various loading requirements, and the efficient utilization of material resources and industrial byproducts. The work described in this paper is a continuation of previous activities on composite floor and roof panels in which light gage steel joists were integrally cast with the ECC slab. The modular concept introduced in this paper aims at improvements in the manufacturing process of the panels by casting the ECC slab separately and subsequently joining it with the steel trusses. The focus of this paper is on design and manufacturing of a prototype modular panel and on its structural behavior under service conditions and at ultimate.