Infill System Research Articles

Skeleton and Infill Housing Construction Delivery Process Optimization Based on the Design Structure Matrix

Skeleton and Infill (SI) housing system is considered as a significant path of sustainably prolonging building life by improving structural durability and infill variability for its nature that the skeleton system is fixed, while the infill system could be rebuilt to satisfy users’ changing demands in different stage without damaging the skeleton system. The application of a SI housing system involves two new characteristics compared to traditional cast-in-place housing system: components production in factories and site construction are carried out simultaneously; the skeleton system and the infill system are constructed in parallel phases, which increase enormous parallel work. Iterations and rework would increase with the improper handling of parallel works, which lead to higher construction cost and lower participant willingness of stakeholders in SI housing construction delivery process. It is essential to establish a model to clarify the dependencies among major parallel work items and recognize parallel work sets to optimize the construction sequence for stakeholders to strengthen communication and coordination on key work items in a more efficiency way. By conducting investigations into the construction delivery process of typical SI housing projects in China, this paper developed a parallel collaborative mode based on the design structure matrix (DSM) to identify the complex dependencies among major cooperative work items. Furthermore, to provide an optimized parallel collaborative process, graph theory was introduced to find parallel work sets and eliminate repetition and iteration caused by improper work execution sequences. The results provide a guide for stakeholders to make appropriate cooperation strategies in implementing major work items and promoting cooperating efficiency by reducing iteration and rework.

In-plane and out-of plane response of currently constructed masonry infills

In most of the Reinforced Concrete buildings in Greece, as well as in other earthquake prone countries, the current infill construction, for the exterior walls of buildings, consists in a cavity masonry wall, made of two thin walls. The two walls are not transversely connected. The seismic vulnerability of those enclosures (to in-plane and out-of-plane actions) is high, as many seismic events have shown.In the last decades, emphasis was given to the study of Innovative Infill Systems with improved seismic behaviour. The in-plane and out-of-plane behaviour of the (vulnerable) currently constructed masonry infills has not been systematically studied, experimentally and analytically. Within the present work, two full scale RC infilled frames were tested. One was subjected to in-plane cyclic displacements; the second specimen was subjected to repeated out-of-plane displacements, until severely damaged, and subsequently subjected to cyclic in-plane loading. Hysteresis loops for the entire loading history, the observed damage at several drift values and the overall behaviour of the infill are presented and discussed upon. The obtained results are compared to the results recorded during testing of innovative infill systems. It is shown that the performance of the currently constructed infill system is inferior in terms of both load and deformation capacity.

Innovative solution for seismic-resistant masonry infills with sliding joints: in-plane experimental performance

Within the European FP7 Project “INSYSME”, a new seismic-resistant clay masonry infill system was conceived with the purpose of controlling damage in the masonry and reducing detrimental effects of the panel-frame interaction, through a combined use of sliding joints inserted in the masonry and deformable joints at the wall-frame interface. Although the idea behind the proposed solution stems from principles already implemented in the past, the originality of this work lies in the innovative development of the materials and of the construction details of the components. In order to assess the seismic performance of this new system, in-plane cyclic tests on one-storey one-bay RC frames with two different infill configurations (one solid and one with a central opening) have been performed within the framework of a wider experimental campaign and are discussed here. These in-plane test results have proved the ability of the proposed solution in limiting the level of damage along with the attainment of a wide margin towards the life safety requirements in comparison with traditional infill systems. Although design and construction optimization of the solution still needs to be further implemented, the results of the in-plane tests appear very promising about its use as an efficient seismic resistant non-structural component in RC buildings.

Damage reduction system for masonry infill walls under seismic loading

AbstractReinforced concrete (RC) frames with masonry infills are frequently used in seismic regions all over the world. Generally masonry infills are considered as nonstructural elements and thus are typically neglected in the design process. However, the observations made after strong earthquakes have shown that masonry infills can modify the dynamic behavior of the structure significantly. The consequences were total collapses of buildings and loss of human lives. This paper presents the new system INODIS (Innovative Decoupled Infill System) developed within the European research project INSYSME (Innovative Systems for Earthquake Resistant Masonry Enclosures in RC Buildings). INODIS decouples the frame and the masonry infill by means of special U‐shaped rubbers placed in between frame and infill. The effectiveness of the system was investigated by means of full scale tests on RC frames with masonry infills subjected to in‐plane and out‐of‐plane loading. Furthermore small specimen tests were conducted to determine material characteristics of the components and the resistances of the connections. Finally, a micromodel was developed to simulate the in‐plane behavior of RC frames infilled with AAC blocks with and without installation of the INODIS system.

Finite-element analysis of steel shear walls with low-yield-point steel web plates

Over the past three decades the steel shear wall system has been used to resist lateral loads, especially in high-rise buildings in the USA and Japan. One way to improve the performance of the system is to use different materials. This study involved finite-element analysis of steel shear walls under periodic and uniform loads, with low-yield-point steel used for the web plate and conventional steel selected for the boundary beams and columns. The aim was to achieve a system with effective web-plate performance that did not require stiffeners. The effect of system dimensions, beam stiffness, frame column and web-plate thickness on the periodic and uniform behaviour of the system was observed. It is revealed that steel shear walls with low-yield-point steel web plates exhibit better resistance to cyclic loads with more force absorption by the web plate compared to a conventional steel. Good accordance was found between numerical and theoretical values in the low-yield-point infill system, and excellent deformation capacity was shown.

Toekomstbestendig renoveren

Homes are renovated a number of times during their lifespan. Although we can regard each of these renovations as new, it is more prudent to implement a future-proof solution to renovation. Current renovation practice focuses on renovating to meet current demand. Many of the renovations are still extremely labour intensive and occur on site. This results in solutions to ensure that the house once again meets the required standards in the short term. These standards will continue to change in the future, however. Our homes will continually require renovation. The question is how we can arrive at solutions that do not impede these future renovations, and implement future-proof solutions that can be applied to a large percentage of housing stock. This study defines future-proof renovation as follows: “Future-proof renovation is renovation that at the very least incorporates solutions that do not impede future renovations and preferably increase opportunities for renovation”. The purpose of this study is to gain an insight into how future-proof renovation solutions are for homes built between 1975 and 1991 that are currently being carried out or offered on the market. The study adopts a primarily architectural viewpoint to examine the hypothesis that we first need to be aware of what is architecturally possible and relevant, before it makes sense to answer any further questions. The key question that this study asks is: What perspective do available renovation concepts offer housing with respect to futureproof renovation? In order to answer this question, this study focuses on developing and applying a method of analysis for these renovation solutions in order to identify the distinctive characteristics that increase the future sustainability of renovation solutions and to evaluate the usability of already developed future-proof renovation solutions for this part of the housing stock. This included seeking inspiration from housing designed using the principles of the Foundation for Architects’ Research (SAR). These homes are constructed according to the support and infill system (SDI homes). This makes it possible to carry out renovations to the infill while the supporting structure remains unchanged. The occupants can then change the infill continually.

CLAMPING AND INTERLOCKING EFFECTS ON IBS BLOCK HOUSE SYSTEM IN COMPARISON WITH CONVENTIONAL HOUSE SYSTEM

Industrialised Building System (IBS) is a unique construction technique that has been implemented in many construction fields all around the world. However, its implementation in Malaysia is still slow and not effective. Through the research on IBS, some elements are found to be important and need to be improved in order to produce better quality components. One of the important elements is the design and innovation of IBS components by applying new interlocking configuration between blocks and by using a clamping bolted connection to the system. The main objective of this research is to determine the structural behavior of IBS block works sub-system under push over cyclic loading in comparison with conventional sub-system and to verify that the IBS interlocking geometry sub-system perform better than other sub-systems via laboratory tests. In this research, a block work assembly to form building sub-frame that integrated by two beams, two columns and infill system were built and tested to failure. Two types of IBS block work sub-systems with original geometry and interlocking geometry with scaled of 1:5 were tested with Push Over Cyclic Load Test. In comparison, a control model of Conventional Sub-System was also tested and analysed using the same methods. The results showed that the IBS geometry model with interlocking configuration performed better in terms of stiffness, ductility and flexibility of the models. The IBS original geometry model is ductile but lack structural stiffness while the conventional model is stiff but not ductile.

The Efforts to Develop Longer Life Housing with Adaptability in Japan

In the past, the average life of housing in Japan had been around 30 years vs. 77 years in the UK. In the late 1970's, the Japanese government and private sector started research and development projects to design and build longer life housing that is adaptable with time, such as the Kodan Experimental Housing Project (KEP) and the Century Housing Project (CHS). We have been researching the outcomes of those experimental projects to determine whether the attempted adaptability has worked or not over the thirty plus years that people have been living in them. We found that the housing with adaptable infill has been able to adjust to changes in family size and lifestyles in the KEP and CHS projects and have reported on it at several CIB conferences.The Japanese government enacted the Long Life Housing Law in 2009 to extend the life of Japanese housing and increase its adaptability over time. The law's technical guidelines require that continuous efforts be made to improve adaptability to extend the life of housing, and the amount of housing built based on these guidelines has been increasing.In the near future, Japan will have a shortage of construction workers. Therefore, an infill system that can be installed by unskilled labor needs to be developed. We need to compensate for the coming labor shortage in the construction sector by improving its relatively low productivity. We think it is becoming more important to design and construct buildings which require less skilled labor. At the same time, the infill of those buildings needs to be simple like furniture, easy to install on site, and easy to replace by residents and users. The concept of Open Building will play an important role in Japan's future.

Fabrication Processes of Residential Building Adopted Cruse Housing System

In South Korea, the need for residential modular buildings has highlighted, due to the increase in demand for small housing and the high land price in urban area. Thus, the cruse housing system (CHS) was developed to build high-rise residential buildings. The object of this study is to analyze the characteristics and fabrication processes of CHS residential buildings when the in-fill construction method is adopted. The result of this study showed that there is the potential to utilize the fabrication processes of CHS in-fill construction system to build high-rise modular buildings.

The Effect of Compressed Infill Panels on Cyclic Performance of Exterior Beam-Column Joints

The confining effect of infill panels on the hysteresis performance of the external beam-column joints has been studied experimentally. Four hinged joints and two rigid joints have been tested under cyclic loading with the interaction of infill panels on both the sides of the joints. The infill panels have remained subjected to different compression loads applied either at centre or at the end positions of the infill panels. This effect of infill panels has shown an increase with the increase in amount of compression load. The cyclic evaluation of hinged joints with infill panels has been used to determine the shear resistance of infill panels which has not only depended upon the amount but also on the location of compression load. It has been observed that the load-deformation diagrams of rigid beam-column joints with infill panels manifest a significant increase in the capacity of the joint by confining the joint with infill panels. The obtained capacity has almost been the result of the combined effects of two independent systems, ie. bare rigid joint system and compressed infill panel system.

The natural frequencies of composite Profiled Steel Sheet Dry Board with Concrete infill (PSSDBC) system

This paper aims to measure natural frequencies of Profiled Steel Sheet Dry Board (PSSDB) with Concrete infill (PSSDBC) system. For this purpose, experimental tests by estimation of Frequency Response Function (FRF) and a numerical method by development of Finite Element Model (FEM) are used. The connection stiffness between Peva45 as Profiled Steel Sheet (PSS) and different concrete grades of 25 (C25), 30 (C30), and 35 (C35) are measured by push-out tests to be used in the FEM. The effect of presence of concrete in the PSSDB system on the natural frequencies such as Fundamental Natural Frequency (FNF) of the system is investigated. The variability in the FNF of the studied system under different parameters such as concrete grades, thicknesses of PSS and Dry Board (DB), and boundary conditions is determined. In a wide numerical study, the FNF of the PSSDBC system with practical dimensions is revealed for different lengths, widths, and boundary conditions. The results help designer predict serviceability and design criteria of the studied panels.

A SURVEY FOR THE PRESENCE OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS IN THE INFILL MEDIA OF SYNTHETIC TURF

Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium that is a common inhabitant of human skin and can cause various types of skin or soft tissue infections. Strains of S. aureus that are resistant to common antibiotics are becoming more common, particularly in medical settings. There have been reports of methicillin-resistant S. aureus causing infection in athletes. With the increase in athlete infections, there is growing concern regarding the role of infilled turf systems. While there is some indication that the spread of these bacteria may be more closely associated with locker room activity and skin to skin contact compared to athlete contact with the infill system conclusive evidence about the role of synthetic turf in the spread of this bacterium is not currently available. The objective of this survey was to sample the total microbial population of several infilled synthetic turf systems and determine if S. aureus was present. Infill material was sampled from twenty fields. Fiber samples were also collected. In addition, other surfaces from public areas and from an athletic training facility and natural turfgrass rootzones were also sampled. Each sample was analyzed for total organism populations and for the presence Staphylococcus. There were generally lower numbers of total microbes present in the infill or fibers of the synthetic turf systems tested compared to natural turfgrass rootzones and S. aureus was not found on any of the playing surfaces.

Advanced Composite Panels for Seismic and Vibration Mitigation of Existing Structures

In this paper, a conceptual design, fabrication, and testing of advanced polymer matrix composite (PMC) infill system are addressed for seismic retrofitting of steel frames. Such a system is designed to have a multi-panel PMC infill system with passive energy mechanism. The basic configuration of this system is composed of two separate components—namely, an inner PMC sandwich panel and outer damping panels. The inner PMC sandwich infill consists of two fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) laminates with Divincell® H core, and outer damping panels are made of FRP laminate plates and passive energy constrained damping layers—combining polymer honeycomb and 3M viscoelastic solid materials—at the interface between the laminates. The interactions of these two components produce considerable stiffness and enhanced damping properties in the structure following different drift level. Conceptually, the FRP outer damping panels are designed to produce the damping through the cyclic shear straining of the combined interface damping layers. Moreover, as the lateral drift increases, the inner PMC sandwich infill is designed to provide considerable lateral stiffness to resist severe earthquake excitation and avoid excessive relative floor displacements that cause both structural and non-structural damage. As part of this research, analytical and experimental studies were performed to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed multi-infill panel concept. The prefabricated multi-panel PMC infill holds a great promise for enhanced damping performance, simplification of the construction process, and the reduction of time and cost when used for seismic retrofitting applications.

Investigation of Infill Panels Made from Engineered Cementitious Composites for Seismic Strengthening and Retrofit

An infill system for frame structures has been developed as a retrofit strategy for critical facilities. The system uses precast panels made with an engineered cementitious composite (ECC) material in lieu of a traditional reinforced concrete or masonry. The ECC material is advantageous due to the increased tensile strain capacity and compressive toughness of the material relative to traditional materials. Finite element simulations were performed to identify promising infill geometries. A series of structural scale tests was developed from the simulation results. The results from a series of single panel tests are presented. Testing results indicated that different levels of panel strength and stiffness can be achieved by varying the mix design of the ECC material and the amount of reinforcement in the panels. The panel test results combined with the simulation results demonstrate the potential of the infill system as a retrofit.

既存集合住宅の高齢者向け改造技術の開発研究(その2)(建築計画)

This development aims to realize new infill systems for elderly residents' living. In the case of renovation, the infill systems should be assembled at low cost in a short period of time and be easily disassembled when residents do not need them any more. For this aims, Raku-Inkyo Infill System was developed The results are as follows: (1) Design and production of 'Infill Components' which are adaptable to small room. (2) An experiment involving the disassembling and withdrawal of the infill components developed in before development. (3) Evaluation of renovated space and infill components.

入居者カスタマイズを可能にする賃貸集合住宅インフィルシステムの開発(建築計画)

This report presents technology development of Infill system for rental apartments that could be customized by tenants. It enhances the value of rental apartments for tenants and for landlord. This technology consists of hierarchical Infill systems. Infill-1 is fixed parts as a part of building fabric, while Infill-2 is flexible parts that could be installed and removed flexibly by each tenants' choice. This reports illustrates developed elements and details of interface concerned in Infill-1 and Infill-2.

Experimental Response of Precast Infill Panel Connections and Panels Made with DFRCC

This paper describes the results of an experimental investigation of an infill system that utilizes precast ductile fiber reinforced cementitious composite (DFRCC) panels in lieu of traditional materials. The system is intended for use as a retrofit strategy in steel framed hospital structures. Bolted connections are utilized both between individual panels and to the frames, allowing the system to be moved or altered in the event of changes in facility use. Results from laboratory tests of panel connections and panels are presented. The connection tests studied the effect of bolt orientation with respect to applied load, the effect of the DFRCC surface condition within the connection, and time-dependent bolt tension loss. The connection tests demonstrated the viability and the capacity of the proposed connections. DFRCC panels were tested to evaluate the cyclic load-displacement response and energy dissipation in the panels with various panel geometries, panel reinforcements and DFRCC materials. The panel tests also demonstrated the viability of the connection system used. Selected panel test results are presented here, indicating the variation in stiffness and energy dissipation possible with different panel reinforcement.

鉄筋コンクリート造及びパーシャリープレストレストコンクリート造長大スパンスラブの長期たわみ制御設計法

The needs of larger span reinforced concrete slabs such as long life housing with a support and infill system are increasing. For larger span slabs the deflection control design is requested because of serviceability problem resulting for excessive deflection. The aim of this paper is to propose the design method of deflection control by applying author's calculation method of minimum slab thickness and of long term deflection of reinforced concrete and partially prestressed concrete slabs.