Shek Poi Ngian

Experimental investigation on box-up cold-formed steel columns in fire

Cold-formed steel is a popular material with various advantages. Its easy production and assembly give engineer an option to speed the construction process. However, thinness relates to the major issue of buckling, especially when dealing with high temperature. The unprotected cold-formed steel behaviour under fire is expected to have a little strength as compared to hot-rolled steel. Information on such behaviour is still limited. Fire resistance testing on built-up box CFS column was presented in this paper. Two fire resistance tests were carried out under compression load. The Standard ISO 834 Fire Resistance Test under 50% and 70% degree of utilisation measured the temperatures at several points of the steel column surface by using a surface thermocouple and axial column deformation. For reference purpose, one same static test at ambient temperature was carried out to assess the load bearing capacity. Results found that the failure temperature of built-up CFS could reach up to 515 °C and 443 °C within 8 minutes and 7 minutes resistant time for 50 % and 70% degree of utilisation, respectively. Based on deformation analysis, buckling temperature of the column was 448 °C and 394 °C with a critical time of 7 minutes for 50 % and 70% degree of utilisation, respectively. This concluded that the higher degree of utilisation results in lower critical temperatures of the columns.

Economic aspects of interlocking hollow brick system designed for industrialized building system

Construction industry has moved forward into a technology driven where a transition is in progress from conventional method to a more advanced and mechanised system known as the Industrialised Building System (IBS). However, the need to implement the IBS should be well understood by all construction players such as designer, architect, contraction, erectors and construction workers. Therefore, there is a need to educate all these construction players which should be spearheaded by authorities such as Construction Industrial Development Board where enforcement trough building by laws as well as initiative to those that adopt the IBS in their construction. This paper reports on economic aspects of using interlocking hollow brick system in construction as an alternative method offered for Industrialized Building System. The main objective is to address the economic aspects of using interlocking block system in terms of time, costs, and utilization of manpower and to present some of the experimental tests res...

Temperature development of cold formed steel column channel section under standard fire

The use of Cold formed steel is in demand for construction due to its varied advantages. However the knowledge of this material’s behaviours under fire is limited since it is perceived that its thinner thickness has no resistance to fire. This fire safety issue has limited the use of this material as building columns. A study was conducted to investigate the structure of cold formed steel channel column under fire condition which had testes four (4) columns. One (1) column was loaded until failure under normal condition, and three (3) columns were loaded at different degrees of utilisations under the standard ISO 834 fire condition and they were heated until failure. The rise of temperature on the column surface was monitored using thermocouple type K at three levels along the columns’ height. The analyses of the thermocouple readings were made to evaluate the mean temperature of the columns and found that the critical temperature of the cold formed steel channel columns could reach up to 600 °C for a low...