Article Review #5: Portal Frames

Wow,this could help me understand the dimensions of a portal frame. Click here to view it.

A great website to look at!

I did a lot of research on concrete floors for my major assignment project,i managed to find a couple of good websites that have informative articles on precast concrete. One of them is...

Click Here to go there!

Article Review 4

I came across this article while i was on this website www.infolink.com.au

Since,this sem concentrates more on portal frames, i think this would be a great article to review on.

In this article the architect expressed his concern with the large span of building that he is designing.The engineer said"Bonnaci Group engineer David Farrar says the building required very substantial footings and ground anchoring because of its height and size. "Sway was a big issue for this building because of the racking requirements," he says. "The maximum allowable sway at the top was 150mm, although we kept the sway to only 100mm.

"To solve the sway problem in an economical design, we used a propped portal framed building utilising four 35m long, 600mm diameter props on one side of the building, with a wind truss on the roof".

"We took the unusual step for an industrial building of using ground anchors in the main footings in order to substantially reduce the volume of concrete required in the footings, as wind uplift forces were critical for the footing design."

Source: Building Products News

Article review 3

Home among the trees

Click here to read it

Land previously described as unsuitable for building has become the site of a magnificent architect-designed home at Brooklyn on NSW’s central coast.

“River Rock”, set high among the trees was designed by Sydney architect Ashley Talbot, who not only had to overcome what many would describe as an impossible building site, but the challenges of constructing a home on land with restricted vehicle access. It is built over a constricted area of rock shelves which have been used as a feature of the home.

“Although there is a narrow unsealed road leading to the rear boundary of the property you cannot drive a vehicle on it,” says Talbot. “That meant we had to prefabricate as much of the building off-site as possible, which is why steel frame construction was a good choice.”
Talbot says the lightweight steel frame made from DuraGal enabled the floor to be erected quickly, giving the builder a level working platform on the steep site. “With its smooth, ready to paint surface finish, close tolerances and easy lightweight assembly, DuraGal contributed to a significant reduction in the overall construction cost and time frame for the project compared with conventional construction techniques.”

“River Rock” was designed and constructed as a series of off set room modules that enabled the key elements of the design brief to be met, while reducing construction activities on site.

28-May-2001

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i find this article really interesting.So i googled Duragal steel

and you can click here to view it.

Article Review 2

I was just discussing with my tutor for my studio project and i found out that a lot of the commercial construction in Australia uses steel as its structural construction system.

So,i googled steel building advantages, and i came across the same website that gave me a great explaination on Precast concrete and Tiltup wall construction.


After reading this article i've come to a conclusion to why many constructors and architect opt for steel instead of other materials.

1) Prefabricated steel can be erected quickly than the traditionally constructed buildings. Hence more time is saved.
2) Prefabricated steel building kits are generally less expensive than custom-designed structures built using traditional construction.
3)When a large clearspan is needed, steel would be the best material for it.

Article Review 1

Precast Concrete, Tilt up construction and tiltwall

In relations to my major assignment project,I have a difficult understanding between these three terms. Do they all mean the same?

Luckily,i found an article on the internet,that explains clearly what these 3 terms really mean.



The difference between these 3 terms is ,the tilt up and tiltwall term is used to define the same process. However, with tilt up construction, pouring the slab and all of the processes is done at the site and there is an advantage to this process--no transportation is required since everything is done at the site itself.

On the other hand, precast concrete has its own challenges,even though the process is quite similar to tilt up construction.For precast concrete buildings, work crews do not set up forms at the job site to create the panels. Instead, workers pre cast concrete panels at a large manufacturing facility.There is also an advantage to this, the weather condition will not affect the process of producing concrete since it is done indoors. However, there is a limitation to this: transportation and a limitation towards the height and the weight of the panels of the concrete that will be transfered to the site.

After reading this article,i found out that ,tilt-up construction is a much desirable process to choose, and only in locations where the weather allows it.

Major Project Poster

(Click to enlarge)

3D image of the corner detail

(I've decided to do both physical model and 3-D model,since i am not good at 3-D)

Major Project Assignment Progress

Refering to the previous post, i've decided to analyse Centre Georges Pompidou a little bit more. I've scanned a couple of images from Renzo Piano's book called Renzo Piano Building Workshop: Complete Works.



With that i've decided to choose the end wall corner of the warehouse (re:major assignment task) as my corner detail for my major project task.

Detail of concrete floor

Major Assignment Progress

Major Assignment Progress

I did a research on portal frames, and look what I found!



(Click to enlarge)


This is a great connectionfrom wall panel to wall panel.
This website can be found at http://www.onesteel.com/images/db_images/productspecs/tech_stportals0601.PDF

I thought of inserting this in my major project 3D assignment.

So i did a sketchup model on that,

Site Visit 3: Southern Cross Station ,Melbourne.

/edited

i managed to get a couple of photos when the place was reconstructed. Thanks to mugley for the pictures!

Site Visit 2: Malop St.

Chosen Architect : Renzo Piano

For this week’s task we were asked to choose an architect that we admire/adore/favour (based on their design methods as well as construction methods),and I’ve chosen Renzo Piano as my favourite architect.

Renzo Piano

Renzo Piano is an architect of intellectuality. He was born into a family of construction builders, which explains why he was particularly good in construction designs. He was born in Genoa, Italy and he was a Milan Polytechnic Architecture graduate. After he received his degree he worked for a little while in his father’s construction company .He was known for establishing collaboration projects with Richard Rogers whom is a well known architect from England.

His Style

His philosophy in design is very much close to his own roots, as he favoured the classical Italian philosophy and tradition.

He is inspired by Brunelleschi and Jean Prow of France. Most of his styles were a combination of art, architecture and engineering.

Piano believes in “full command over the building from design to the complete build work”

His Projects

Parco de la Musica, Rome

He built a couple of highly recognized buildings like Parco della Musica, Kansai Airport Terminal,Osaka, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Of all the buildings that he has created , I was really amazed by this particular building of which was named Georges Centre Pompidou in Paris and i've chosen this building as a reference for my major assignment project.

Centre Georges Pompidou

Northwest wall

Interior

This building is strategically located in the Beauborg area and was named after the French President Georges Pompidou. It was opened in 1971 and was designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. It is the centre of public information and it houses a library and a research music centre.

Building Description

• massive structural expressionist cast exoskeleton.
• exterior escalators are enclosed in a transparent tube.
• The colourful airducts and elevators are positioned on the building's exoskeleton.The intention of the architects was to place service elements outside of the building to turn the building inside out!

Building Construction

• High tech steel and glass
• Concrete frame and precast
• Ribbed roof
• Metal Girders
• Diagonal bracing were covered over smooth finish materials
• The exterior zone of the structural frame is there to provide tension forces outside the main volume's external column, pulling the cantilevered horizontal members downward.
  

Gutter Details

Nakagin Capsule Tower

I find this building amazing.Theyve used different materials for different levels to ensure that the building could uphold the weight since the design is a bit different from a normal building.

Taken from Wikipedia on the construction of Nakagin Caplsule Tower.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakagin_Capsule_Tower

The cores are rigid-frame, made of a steel frame and reinforced concrete. From the basement to the second floor ordinary concrete was used, but above these levels lightweight concrete was used. Shuttering consists of large panels the height of a single storey of the tower. In order to make early use of the staircase, precast concrete was used in the floor plates and the elevator shafts. By using a policy whereby steel-frame work was done for two days and precast concrete work on the following two days, the designers were able to prepare a completely operational staircase by the time the framework was finished. Construction of the elevators on-site was shortened by incorporating the 3D frames, the rails and anchor indicator boxes in the precast concrete elements and by employing prefabricated cages.

Portal Frame Section Through B-B

The image (a) is a rough sketch of the section of the office building Image (A)

Image (b)

Image (b) is a the portal frame section through B-B

Portal Frame Section Through A-A

Week 2 :Construction Technology - Bunnings Warehouse

Figure 1:the overall picture of Bunnings warehouse,Waurn Ponds.

This is a picture of a well constructed warehouse in Geelong. The Bunnings Warehouse is also known to be a great example of a well built portal frame construction which i will be discussing in this entry. Before i proceed on examining and describing the elements of the portal frames in this warehouse, i will give readers a clear idea about the construction of a portal frame.

Figure 1 :An example of a portal frame foundation detail
(image taken from http://http://www.ci.medford.or.us/images/imagemanager/portalfound.gif)

Figure 2: An example of a portal frame-connection
(image taken from http://www.kuleuven.ac.be)

Portal frame construction is a method of construction that is widely used in warehouses, barns or other places that require a large space at a reasonable cost.A pitched roof can also be used for this construction, because at most cases,pitched roofs are more desirable.Normally, materials like steel or steel with reinforced concrete are used in order to get rigid columns and rafters when the portal frame is connected. Generally, portal frames are used in single storey buildings,but it can also be used in a low rise buildings with a few floors.

Now,back to Bunning's.

The reason why I chose portal frames as an interesting element in this warehouse is because
of the connection of the rafters and columns. I may have not be too much aware of the construction designs when i shop in warehouses like these,but the first thing that caught my eye when i enter Bunnings was the construction of the portal frames.

In this case, strong and rigid joints are connected and the rafters and columns are designed in such a way so that they can carry the bending forces. In construction terminology, this would be called a ' bending resistant' situation. There is a reason why it is constructed like this. The joints that are strong could carry such forces from rafters and then transferred to the columns.
This also means that we could reduce the size of the rafters to suit the design of the wide span type of buildings. Hence, by building a large space like the warehouse, would save a lot of cost.

Figure 4 (a) -(c): An exemplary detail of the building

Fig:4(a)

Fig 4(b)

Fig 4(c)