Title: Recent trends in electro-mechanically coupled modelling of electro-active polymers
Speaker: Dr. Mark Bradford (UNSW Sydney)
Time: Wednesday, Nov 29, 2017, 10:00 a.m.
Venue: Room 7201,Building No.7,WuShan Campus
Contents:
An important aspect of designing sustainable building structures is that they should be deconstructable at the end of their service life, to enable the reuse of materials and to eliminate the energy associated with their demolition and disposal. In steel-framed buildings with concrete flooring systems attached with headed stud steel shear connectors, deconstruction is problematic because of the embedment of the headed studs into the cast in situ concrete slab.
The main presentation describes an alternate system of construction, in which semi-rigid steel frames are constructed using bolted joints, either to I-section columns or to concrete-filled steel tubes using flush end plate connections. The concrete floor is made from slabs of precast geopolymer concrete, connected to the steel beams by friction-grip high-strength steel bolts in pre-drilled clearance holes. The tensioning of the friction-grip bolts is shown to provide substantial interface friction, thereby providing the beams with full shear interaction in the service load range of response. The experimental study, which confirms the deconstructability of the system, is used to calibrate finite element analysis and to formulate design proposals.
A shorter subsequent presentation introduces work nearing completion on steel-timber composite buildings, which have even greater attributes in terms of the carbon footprint of a building, as plantation timber sequestrates carbon dioxide during its growth. This study also demonstrates that such a structural system is robust and ductile.