Structural Concept, Design, and Experimental Verification of a Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Sandwich Roof Structure
Publication: Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 12, Issue 4
Abstract
This paper reports on the design and construction of a lightweight glass fiber-reinforced polymer roof structure in Basel, Switzerland. The sandwich construction allowed for an integration of static, building physical and architectural functions that enabled the prefabrication of the entire roof in only four lightweight elements that were easily transported to the site and rapidly installed. Cutting of foam blocks with a computerized numerical control machine and adhesive bonding proved to be advantageous procedures for the fabrication of the complex roof shape, without the use of expensive molds. The factor of safety of the design was adjusted during the design process through experimental verification. Although some of the characteristic material properties were overestimated in the preliminary design, the design properties for the final design were higher than for the preliminary design as it was possible to reduce the resistance factors (according to Eurocode format) after testing by a factor of 2.0. Existing design models and test standards to determine material properties proved to be applicable.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers wish to acknowledge the collaboration with the following project participants: owner: Novartis Pharma AG, Basel; architect: Marco Serra, Basel; preliminary design: Swissfiber AG, Zurich; final design: Ernst Basler Partner AG, Zurich; contractor: Scobalit AG, Winterthur; design inspector, technical and scientific advice and support: EPFL-CCLab, Lausanne.
References
Bakis, C. E., et al. (2002). “Fiber-reinforced polymer composites for construction—State-of-the-art review.” J. Compos. Constr., 6(2), 73–87.
Clarke, J. L. (1996). Structural design of polymer composites—EuroComp design code and handbook, E & FN Spon, London.
Keller, T., and de Castro, J. (2005). “System ductility and redundancy of FRP beam structures with ductile adhesive joints.” Composites, Part B, 36(8), 586–596.
Keller, T., de Castro, J., and Schollmayer, M. (2004). “Adhesively bonded and translucent glass fiber reinforced polymer sandwich girders.” J. Compos. Constr., 8(5), 461–470.
Keller, T., and Vallée, T. (2005). “Adhesively bonded lap joints from pultruded GFRP profiles. II: Joint strength prediction.” Composites, Part B, 36(4), 341–350.
Swiss Standards Association. (2003a). SIA 260: Basis of structural design, Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects, Zurich, Switzerland.
Swiss Standards Association. (2003b). SIA 261: Actions on structures, Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects, Zurich, Switzerland.
Wiedemann, J. (1996). Leichtbau 1: Elemente, Springer, Heidelberg.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 12 • Issue 4 • August 2008
Pages: 454 - 468
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Dec 5, 2006
Accepted: Sep 6, 2007
Published online: Aug 1, 2008
Published in print: Aug 2008
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.