Steel in low-rise building : a symbiosis of cold formed sections and light rolled profiles

The present dissemination project is divided into three different studies of building projects (project I, named "CRM4", project II, named "Jeanne de Champagne", project III, named "Cultural Center"). For project I, all the Work packages listed hereafter, have been dealt with. For projects II and III, only Work packages 1 to 3 have been analysed. Work package 1 - Creation of working groups composed of architects, engineers and contractors For Project I, the working group was composed of Mr. P. Valentiny (architect), Mr. L. Ney (engineering office) as well as CRM (also client and partner), PROFILARBED and RWTH. The important amount of exchange inside this group has permitted to optimise especially the thermal design of the facade and slab system in order to allow as much as possible the use of steel solution. At the end of the work, the building was designed with about 90% of steel (says Mr. Valentiny). For Project II, the group was composed of CTICM from which Mr. S. Herbin (architect), RWTH, UNAV and PROFILARBED. The main task of the group was to propose and study alternative steel solution of steel facade systems as well as composite slabs for the floors. For Project III, the group was composed of UNAV (architect), RWTH, PROFILARBED and Spanish steel contractors for the cost study of semi-rigid connections. 1 Work package 2 - Detailed design The detailed design aspects are developed in section 2.3. This concerns the layout and architectural aspects of the building and also the composite slab design, the columns, the steel facade system and the windows. At the beginning of the project, the working group has analysed possible floor solutions which can be called classical in steel structures. None of them were retained by the architect which has preferred a more sophisticated and original solution. The details concerning the design work of project II are given in section 3.2. The work has focused on the optimisation of the composite slab in one side, and on the other side on the building's envelop using steel elements and its acoustic behaviour. Concerning the design of the project III, the project overview is given in 4. Mainly two structures of the whole project have been studied in details; first, the study the exhibition hall with semi-rigid design including general concepts, structural design methods, final structural design, connection design, vibration response and fire analysis. Secondly, the workshops structure where composite semi-rigid structure has been carried out including general concepts, structural design methods, final structural design, connections design and vibration response. Work package 3 - Environmental Assessments For the new CRM building, thermal and energy aspects have been deeply investigated thanks to RWTH knowledge in order to optimise and design the heating and cooling systems (see 2.5). The annual energy consumption for heating as well as electricity like computers needs, lighting and cooling devices has been estimated. The Life Cycle Assessment of the building including the construction, use and end-of-life phases is described in 2.7. Furthermore, the cost of the whole construction is analysed in section 5.1. Concerning the project II, completed design and description of several facade systems have been studied and compared according to the French thermal regulation (see 3.3). In addition, a comparison of the Life Cycle Assessment of the traditional masonry solution and a steel based solution has been performed. Concerning project III, studies of the different types of steel structure and their connections have been developed in section 4.4 for the exhibition hall and in section 4.5 for the workshops. Thermal assessment of the workshop has also been performed. Work package 4 - Testing phase For the building project CRM 4, a new facade system made of steel has been developed. The thermal properties of this facade have been worked out by measurements in the "Hot-Box" of the Institute of steel construction, RWTH Aachen.