The use of slag stone concrete to improve the thermal performance of light steel buildings

Abstract

Abstract There are increasing demands for improvements in standards of construction quality, comfort and performance in building internationally. The building industries are looking for new methods for construction. Light steel structures provide alternatives to traditional forms of construction, but any evaluation of a construction method must look at the total performance of the building. Increasingly, energy efficiency issues have become much more important in the assessment of a construction system. In particular, the ability to provide the required thermal performance so that excessive heating or cooling is avoided, and comfort is maintained. Furthermore, concerns over global warming have led to an international commitment to reduce emissions of global warming gases (Gorgolewski, 2000). The objective of this work is to increase the understanding of how light steel structure construction should be designed to ensure that buildings using this technology can achieve excellent comfort conditions and be used in an energy efficient manner, special reference is given to cold formed steel stubs filled with slag stone concrete (SSC). This concept is totally in concordance with the sustainable development as the aim is to design buildings which are comfortable to live in, achieve energy efficiency requirements, and result in low greenhouse gas emissions, in addition the recovery of industrial waste. Thermal properties of SSC samples are measured, and thermal behaviour of the composite elements is estimated using thermal network methods, in order to evaluate the effect of the SSC in the thermal performance of light steel building using the cold formed steel stubs filled with SSC.