Using DRAMIX Steel Fibre Concrete - Projects Book

Composite Slab Flooring System

CI/SfB(28) Hh2

P365 April 2011

Structural Products

2

No Mesh ConstructionFollowing extensive test work and analysis by The SteelConstruction Institute, Dramix® Steel Fibres it is now availablefor multi-storey applications. Dramix steel fibres with Multideckprofiles have been proven by testing to achieve full fireperformance for 1 - 1.5 hours.

The use of a Dramix® Steel Fibre reinforced Concrete slabprovides a “pre-reinforced” concrete slab - no mesh has tobe installed. Unlike mesh Dramix fibres are very easy totransport and store and, as the fibres are mixed into theconcrete prior to pumping, there is no need for pre-fixing orcranes to lift it into place.

Rapid Build and Cost BenefitThe use of Dramix fibres considerably speeds up constructionby reducing the number of deliveries, on-site manpower andthe need for heavy lifting equipment.

Safer ConstructionOn-site health and safety is considerably improved throughminimised site handling and crane lifts, reduced trip hazardsand reducing site congestion.

Kingspan and BekaertComposite Slab

Construction Advantages• Pre-Reinforced Concrete

• Simplified process

• No mesh to transport, buy, store, lay etc...

• Time savings on site

• Earlier project completion

• Concrete volume savings

• Reduction in crane hire time

Technical Advantages• Proven 1 hour & 1.5 hour fire rating

• Structural design information developed by SCI

• Full depth reinforcement offers excellent crack control

• Design advice and assistance

Health & Safety Advantages• Minimises site handling

• Reduces site congestion

• Minimises crane lifts

• Eliminates hand carryingof mesh into position

• Reduces tripping hazards

Utilised for many years throughout Europe, Dramix fibres aresteel wire filaments that are added to the concrete mix toprovide a pre-reinforced concrete suitable for pumping straightonto the Kingspan Multideck at any height.

1. Steel fibres addedto hopper

2. Fibres mix perfectlywith concrete

3. Concrete pumpedinto position

4. Mixture spreadonto deck

3

Proven QualityThe fibres provide full depth reinforcement andexcellent crack control. What’s more the design isendorsed by the Steel Construction Institute(SCI) making it as good as, if not stronger, thanconventional built-up mesh systems.

The fibres spread evenly during the mixing process, sopumping to heights is no problem using normal pumpingequipment and this has been demonstrated on variousprojects throughout Europe such as the Colmore Plazaon all of its 14 floors, 10 storey Teesside House inMiddlesbrough, Thanet Retail Park, Spurriergate inYork mixed development and the prestigiousQuebec Buildings Residential Development inSalford Manchester.

Comprehensive TestingWe believe this is a great step forward in composite floorconstruction for multi-storeys. So we’ve spent considerabletime and resources testing Dramix and Multideck.The combination is the first design with a proven 1-hour and1.5 hour fire rating.

Where can I get more information?For literature & technical advice on the Dramix productcontact Bekaert on 01142 427 485or email bill.thomson@bekaert.com

5. No mesh means notripping hazard

6. Mixture floated off 7. Floating providesa smooth finish

8. Floor completedin double quick time

4

Hi-Rise

which requires no mesh and simplifies thefloor laying process – significantly reducingcompletion time and improving health andsafety onsite. Dramix® fibres are made fromprime quality hard-drawn steelwire toguarantee high tensile strength and closetolerances. Added to the concrete mix, thefibres ensure full depth reinforcement andexcellent crack control.

For the Colmore building, Kingspanapproved installer MSW laid the Multideck,whilst Twintec co-ordinated the addition ofthe steel fibres at a Cemex batching plant.The reinforced concrete was then pumped

The £155million Colmore Plaza project inBirmingham is the tallest building in the UKto specify Dramix® Steel Fibre Concrete foreach of its 14 floors.

The Plaza’s city centre location necessitatedcarefully planned night pours of theinnovative flooring solution. Space at the siteis so restricted that a traditionalmesh-based flooring solution was fraughtwith problems – but Dramix® pumped ontoKingspan Multideck was the easier andmore economical answer.

Dramix® steel fibre reinforced concreteprovides a pre-reinforced concrete slab

Project NameColmore Plaza

LocationBirmingham

Structural ConsultantBrookbanks Consulting

Main ContractorBowmer & Kirkland Ltd.

Sub ContractorsMSW, Twintec

UsageOffices

Colmore PlazaBirmingham

‘tallest building in the UK to specifyDramix® Steel Fibre Concrete’

5

into each floor of the office buildingaccording to a strictly controlled night-timeschedule to cause minimum disruption tothe surrounding area.

When used in conjunction with KingspanMultideck MD80-V2, Dramix® Steel FibreConcrete provides a proven 1 hour and 1.5hour fire rating. Not only does mesh becomeredundant, but the shear resistance ofDramix® concrete exceeds that of its meshreinforced equivalent. In addition, the uniquedesign of Kingspan Multideck reduces thevolume of concrete required, bringing costas well as time savings to a project.

Dramix® is now being specified in a numberof key projects across the UK – mostnotably where access or architecturalconservation are significant issues. Thesolution, a joint initiative between Kingspanand Bekaert, has been tested by the SteelConstruction Institute (SCI) and endorsed formulti-storey applications.

6

Hi-Rise

The Mandale Group accepted the argument,and were persuaded by the savings in bothtime and money, not to mention the healthand safety issues, by removing mesh from

the scheme andreplacing it withsteel fibre reinforcedconcrete.

The placing of theconcrete took place

in the first quarter of 2006, making it at thetime the tallest building to have steel fibreconcrete pumped onto its floors right up to10 storeys.

The £3,160,000 project Teesside House inMiddlesbrough is a 10 Storey scheme toprovide a 388 bed student accommodationblock in Middlesbrough town centre, withretail units and arestaurant on theground floor. Dueto the very limitedaccess on theside roads on thistown centre development the option to usefibres was put forward by Metaldeck, so asto remove the placement of large sheets ofmesh reinforcement onto the 10 floors whichwould have been very problematic.

Project NameTeesside House

LocationMiddlesbrough

Structural ConsultantBillinghurst George & Partners

Main ContractorThe Mandale Group

Sub ContractorsMetaldeck Ltd.,Sidlow Brothers Ltd.

UsageStudent Accommodation /Retail

Carrmills, Leeds

Teesside HouseMiddlesbrough

‘we saw the savings inboth time and money’

7

Leisure

The £9,000,000 scheme is a new leisurecentre comprising of a 4 court sports hall,6-lane 25m pool, 12m by 10m learner pool,health and fitness / dance facility, shapers plusfitness room, multi purpose hall, wet and drychanging rooms, boxing club facility, aerobicsstudio, admin office, reception area, 6-laneathletics track, 2 artificial turf soccer pitches,landscaping and parking.

Time savings and Health and Safety issues ofusing mesh were taken into account by themain contractor and the client in their decisionto use a steel fibre reinforced concretesolution for the first floor, even though in thiscase access was not a problem!

Kirkby Leisure CentreLiverpool

Project NameKirkby Leisure Centre

LocationLiverpool

Architect and EngineerKnowsley MetropolitanBorough Council

Main ContractorShepherd Construction Ltd.

Sub ContractorsMetaldeck Ltd.,Sidlow Brothers Ltd.

UsageLeisure

‘ time savings withsteel fibre reinforcedconcrete’

8

Mixed Use

The £8,000,000 scheme comprises officeand shop units on the ground floor and firstfloor with 56 apartments over 6 storeysabove. 28 parking spaces are also included.

This was the first time the Engineer hadseriously considered steel fibre concreteon decks, but due to its very restrictedcorner site the use of mesh would havemeant all sort of complications in gainingaccess to lay.

Artisan asked the Engineer to consider theuse of Steel Fibre Concrete, as they couldsee that there were a number of days timesaving to be made and after looking at allthe evidence and information given byBekaert, Kingspan and Metaldeck, theengineer made an informed decision toproceed with Dramix Fibre Reinforcement.

ExpressNetworksManchester

Project NameExpress Networks

LocationManchester

Structural ConsultantMarston and Grundy

Main ContractorArtisan Ltd.

Sub ContractorsMetaldeck Ltd.,Sidlow Brothers Ltd.

UsageOffices / Residential

‘due to its veryrestricted cornersite, steel fibreconcrete was theanswer’

9

Kingspan and Dramix provided an innovativesolution to the parking difficulties andconstricted conditions in York City centre.The Spurriergate project comprised retailspace on the ground floor and 13two-bedroom apartments over a furtherthree floors. The area was sited in thebusiest shopping location in what is,ostensibly, a medieval city layout.

Due to the confined nature of the site theengineers and main contractor needed tominimise site traffic and crane lifts. One wayto do this was by eliminating the steel meshused in the composite floor decking. Dramixsteel fibres were added to the hopper duringmixing to create "pre-reinforced" concretewhich meant several lorry loads and cranelifts could be eliminated from theprogramme. In addition this meant thatvaluable storage space on site could befreed up for other uses. Using Dramix SteelFibres in conjunction with Kingspan'sMultideck MD60 gave a mesh-free, provenfire-rated solution.

The complex fixing and concrete pumpingrequirements was undertaken by Kingspanapproved fixers, Metaldeck of Skelmersdale.

Mixed Use

SpurriergateYork

Project NameSpurriergate

LocationYork

Structural ConsultantHalcrow Group Ltd

Main ContractorQuarmby

Sub ContractorMetaldeck Ltd.

UsageShops / Offices / Single Living

Withington House, Manchester

10

Education

This £11,000,000 scheme comprised of theconstruction of phase 2 of the Centre for BioMolecular Sciences research buildings andgeneral academic buildings.

This was the first time that the engineerThe Ward Cole Partnership had consideredthe use of Steel Fibre Concrete on SteelDecks, tight proximity of the new building toexisting buildings created access problemswhich would have been difficult to solve withmesh reinforcement. So they looked veryseriously at the Fibre Solution and decidedto proceed!

Thomas Fish & Son Ltd bought its steel fibrereinforced concrete form Lafarge, whodosed the fibre into their concrete at a localbatching plant. Thomas Fish were veryimpressed with the ease of laying the floorsand their Site Manager Ranjit Lall stated thathe would certainly consider Steel FibreReinforcement on decks on future projects!

University ofNottinghamNottingham

Project NameUniversity of Nottingham

LocationNottingham

Structural ConsultantWard & Cole Partnership

Main ContractorThomas Fish & Sons Ltd

Sub ContractorsMSW, Northern Flooring

UsageUniversity ‘Very impressed

with the ease oflaying the floors’

11

The £9,500,000 scheme comprised of thecomprehensive re-development of thecollege’s main campus, including thedemolition of approximately 8,380 sqm ofbuildings and the construction of 7,000 sqmof classrooms. Metaldeck made thesuggestion of using Steel Fibre Concrete onthe decks of this project, and CundallJohnston made an investigation into theviability and decided that there were definiteadvantages to the use of fibres over mesh.Tarmac bought and dosed the fibres at theirlocal batching plant for Wyn Construction topump and place the concrete onto all 3storeys of the building.

All went successfully and Surgo are nowconsidering Fibres as a solution for its latestproject, another educational building in theNorth East of England

Education

BishopAucklandCollegeCounty Durham

Project NameBishop Auckland College

LocationCounty Durham

EngineerCundall Johnston & Partners

Main ContractorSurgo Construction Ltd

Sub ContractorMetaldeck Ltd.,Wyn Construction

UsageCollege

12

Education

This £24m project for Sefton MetropolitanBorough Council involved the constructionof a new school building aside an existing,followed by demolition of the existingstructure upon completion.

Using the latest 20kg/m3 solution ofRC-80/60-BN on the Kingspan MD60 decktype, ABS Brymar Floors Ltd were able tospeed-up the programme and save themain contractor - Kier NW - 3 weeks oftime on site.

Using Dramix in simple jointed floors on allground bearing areas, and the 80/60 in aspecially adapted pump mix for all raisedfloors, nearly all traditional reinforcement wasdesigned-out of the scheme, helping savemore time and money on steel fixing.

LitherlandHigh SchoolSefton

Project NameLitherland High School

LocationSefton

Structural ConsultantWSP Group, Manchester

Main ContractorKier NW

Sub ContractorsMetaldeck Ltd.,ABS Brymar Floors Ltd

UsageSchool

13

Health and Safety issue of removing anobvious trip hazard.

Technic Flooring who have worked withRichardson Projects on previous jobs,suggested the use of Fibre concrete at ameeting where access problems with layingthe mesh were being discussed.

Richardson Projects took this on board andafter discussions with the client proceededwith the fibre reinforced concrete.

The £15,000,000 scheme comprises ofthe erection of 2 apartment blocks (sixstoreys and seven storeys high) along with45 2 bedroom apartments, and a multistorey car park to provide 460 spaceson 10 split levels.

The site is a corner site with very tightaccess between the main road and therailway line, giving a very cramped area forservices on site. So the use of fibres wasconsidered so as to remove the obviousproblems that laying large sheets of meshreinforcement presented. So Steel FibreReinforcement was decided upon for accessreasons, but also for time savings, and the

Broad Road ApartmentsSale, Manchester

Residential

Project NameBroad Road Apartments

LocationSale, Manchester

ArchitectMBLA Architects & Urbanists

Main ContractorRichardson Projects Ltd.

Sub ContractorsMetaldeck Ltd.,Technic Concrete Floors Ltd

UsageResidential

‘ tight access – sofibre reinforcedconcrete was theperfect solution’

14

Residential

Quebec Buildings in Salford, GreaterManchester is a residential scheme built byproperty developers, the Vermont Group.

The £7 million development comprises152 apartments together with smallercommercial units. The complex is 6 storeyshigh and includes a basement car park forresidents. Designed by Stephenson BellArchitects the building features zinc metalcladding on the facade.

The Structural Consultant, ClancyConsultants selected a composite slab floorto reduce the overall amount of concretethat would be required in the buildprogramme. By specifying Dramix steelfibres the consultant also ensured that thefloor construction would be fast-track andnot reliant on mesh which is problematic totransport, store, lift and position.

Construction Director for Vermont, Mr MarkColton commented “Using steel fibres with acomposite deck was a first for the group andit was essential that everything went right onsuch a large project as this. We wereimpressed with how the product simplifiedand speeded up the pouring process.

The end result was a smooth floor with lessof the hassle involved with mesh.”

Fire and acoustics are important areas inresidential design. The SCI’s robust detailsfor composite slab floors provide residentialsolutions to meet Part E of the Buildingregulations. In addition the SCI haveproven the performance of KingspanMultideck MD60 and Dramix steel fibrestogether and endorse the design for 1 and1.5 hours fire rating.

QuebecSalford

Project NameQuebec Buildings

LocationSalford

Structural ConsultantClancy Consulting

Main ContractorVermont Group

Sub ContractorsMetaldeck Ltd.,CAY Flooring

UsageResidential

Havenside, CambridgeshireE1.4, Milton Keynes

15

Retail

fixing of screed rails and stop ends wasconsiderably simplified as was the powerfloating of the slabs.

The success of steel fibre reinforcedconcrete metal decking led to the groundfloor slabs also being constructed using

steel fibre. Thisobviatedplacementdifficulties whenworking overmesh and

provided far more extensive crack controlthrough the full depth of the concrete.

Comments by Roger Stagg

One of the challenges facing the designteam on the £50m contract for theWestwood Cross Shopping Centre, Thanetwhich opened in June 2005 was the largearea of first floor which needed to beconstructed with maximum flexibility to suitthe future incomingtenants. Alongsidethis were the needsfor ultra fastconstruction andno applied finishes.

The problem of keeping composite floorseconomically thin whilst providing fireresistance and adequate crack control isnormally frustrated by the use of steel meshreinforcement particularly at the lappositions. All too frequently this leads to theneed for increased concrete thickness toprevent the mesh ‘grinning’ through.

The problems were solved by usingKingspan MD60 decking with un-proppedspans up to 3.3m infilled with concretereinforced with Bekaert RC65/60BNsteel fibres.

Despite some contractor concern the use offibres became an unqualified success and

Project NameWestwood Cross

LocationThanet, Broadstairs, Kent

Structural ConsultantReuby & Stagg

Main ContractorCarillion

Sub ContractorsMSW / O’Keefes

UsageRetail Park

Westwood CrossBroadstairs, Kent

‘maximum flexibility andultra fast construction’

Debenhams, Thanet

16

Commercial

The first project for 2004 using Kingspan’sMD60 and Dramix fibres was a 4 storeyoffice development on Talbot Road inManchester. The site had very limitedaccess being situated between two existingoffice blocks and the only site access beingonto the small car park area at the front ofthe building.

The decision was made to use Dramix steelfibres instead of mesh mainly because of siteaccess, but also health and safety issuessuch as reducing mesh handling, and triphazards during the flooring operation. Thesteeldeck & fibre concrete solution carries aminimum 1 hour fire rating. Fire load tableswere developed by the Steel ConstructionInstitute based on large scale fire testingundertaken at the Warrington Fire ResearchEstablishment.

The fibres were batched by conveyor directlyinto the truck mixers at the Tarmac TopmixBatching plant in Salford. After arriving onsite the concrete was pumped directly ontoall 4 floors which were laid in 2 days. Despitebeing on a main road, congestion was keptto a minimum, as pre-reinforced concretewas pumped into place.

Talbot RoadManchester

Project NameTalbot Road

LocationManchester

Structural ConsultantShaw Whitmore FyffePartnership

Main ContractorParkinsons

Sub ContractorsMetaldeck Ltd.,Tarmac Topmix

UsageOffices

IO Business Centre, GlasgowSunderland Marine Assurance, Durham

17

18

19

Kingspan Structural ProductsSherburn, Malton, North Yorkshire, YO17 8PQ, England

Tel: 01944 712000 Sales fax: 01944 710830 Customer Services fax: 01944 710941 Technical fax: 01944 711649Email: marketing@kingspanstructural.co.uk

visit our website kingspanstructural.com or our group website kingspan.comDue to our continuing policy of development and improvement we reserve the right to alter and amend the specification as shown in this literature.

This brochure is printed on paper made from 80% recycled post-consumer fibre and 20% virgin pulp sourced from responsibly managed and sustainable forests.

Kingspan Structural Product Range

Multibeam TechnicalHandbookKingspan Structural Productsproduce a complete range ofpre-engineered cold formedproducts for modern industrialand commercial buildingconstruction.

Multideck TechnicalHandbookMultideck is a high performanceprofiled galvanised steel deck foruse in the construction ofcomposite floor slabs.This publication containscomplete technical informationon the Multideck productsproduced by KingspanStructural Products.

Multichannel TechnicalHandbookThe Multichannelrange iscontained withinthe Multibeamtechnical manual.

Kingspan ToolkitSoftwareThe Toolkit series has become theleading cold rolled steel and floordecking design software in theindustry and is now used bystructural engineers in over 1000practices in the UK. IncludesDesign of Purlins, Rails, MezzanineFloors, Composite Floors, CADDetails and much more.