Location

Cork Institute of Technology, Cork, Ireland

Event Website

https://event.ceri2020.exordo.com/

Start Date

27-8-2020 10:30 AM

End Date

27-8-2020 11:45 AM

Description

Window sills are common to most buildings. In Ireland, concrete is the most popular material used for external sills. A standard one-metre concrete window sill weighs about 70kg. While external window sills are required to have sufficient capacity to resist damage during transportation and loading, they are non-structural elements. Therefore, there is no need for their high selfweight. This project looks to redesign concrete window sills to make them lighter. Decreasing the amount of concrete used in each sill would significantly reduce their self-weight. This would make concrete window sills more manageable in terms of transportation and installation. Two design concepts were developed and tested. One concept sees the removal of concrete through the central plane of the sill. This effectively makes the sill hollow, reducing the self-weight by up to 30%. The other concept sees the removal of concrete from the under-side of the sill. This reduces the self-weight of the sill by up to 45%. Fibre reinforcement was introduced to both concepts to improve the flexural strength of the concrete elements. The concept sills were tested against solid reinforced concrete sills to compare their resistance to failure due to cracking.

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Aug 27th, 10:30 AM Aug 27th, 11:45 AM

Analysis and Design of a Novel Heavy-Duty Precast Element

Cork Institute of Technology, Cork, Ireland

Window sills are common to most buildings. In Ireland, concrete is the most popular material used for external sills. A standard one-metre concrete window sill weighs about 70kg. While external window sills are required to have sufficient capacity to resist damage during transportation and loading, they are non-structural elements. Therefore, there is no need for their high selfweight. This project looks to redesign concrete window sills to make them lighter. Decreasing the amount of concrete used in each sill would significantly reduce their self-weight. This would make concrete window sills more manageable in terms of transportation and installation. Two design concepts were developed and tested. One concept sees the removal of concrete through the central plane of the sill. This effectively makes the sill hollow, reducing the self-weight by up to 30%. The other concept sees the removal of concrete from the under-side of the sill. This reduces the self-weight of the sill by up to 45%. Fibre reinforcement was introduced to both concepts to improve the flexural strength of the concrete elements. The concept sills were tested against solid reinforced concrete sills to compare their resistance to failure due to cracking.

https://sword.cit.ie/ceri/2020/5/2