Chui, Ying-Hei (University of Alberta)

Purpose

Over the last 10 years there has been a world-wide interest in using wood in multi-storey building construction. Among the key factors behind this interest is the ease of prefabrication with wood products, leading to a faster speed of construction since a large part of the construction process can be done in the factory. Recent experience with multi-storey wood buildings has shown that the construction time for a wood superstructure is about one-third to one quarter of that for a similar building constructed with steel or concrete. Giusti Wall Tech is currently producing prefabricated wood shear wall panels and suppling largely to the construction industry in Alberta. In anticipation of this market opportunity, Giusti Wall Tech is interested in developing a production line for prefabricated engineered wood floor panels that are constructed with engineered floor joists, such as wood I-joists and open-web trusses. These engineered floor joists are available in length of up to 20m, and can therefore be used to span over a few supports, thereby leading to further saving in construction time. Due to transportation limitation, the width of these prefabricated floor panels must be limited to 3.6m, even though the length can be a maximum of 20m. However there are technical challenges that need to be overcome if Giusti floor panels are to achieve the maximum cost-saving in the construction process. In the proposed project research will be conducted to develop efficient panel-to-panel connection details, and optimum floor configuration, including rigging details, for handling in the factory and at the construction site. Computer modeling will be conducted to develop preliminary recommendations on panel-to-panel connection details and optimum floor panel configuration. These recommendations will then be validated by a testing program in the laboratory. Once validated these recommended details will be transferred to Giusti Wall Tech for implementation in its floor panel products._x000D_