Feasibility of using lightweight load-bearing panel systems in duplex apartments of tall buildings

Abstract

As an inevitable result of the growing population in recent times, requirements for housing facilities, land scarcity, and overexploitation of natural resources have created many problems, both environmental and social. Due to the shortage of land in cities, land prices have increased rapidly in recent times. One solution for the lack of land is to have multi-storey apartment buildings, though the land prices can be distributed among many owners. Because of that, over the last few decades, the number of tall buildings has seen an exponential increase. Moreover, because of the urbanization of cities, more people tend to live in apartment buildings than in small housing units. Along with that, the time taken for the construction and the cost can be identified as significant issues in construction. To overcome these problems, lightweight EPS panels can be considered a proper alternative. This research is mainly focused on assessing the structural feasibility of a duplex apartment with tall buildings. This can have a significant cost benefit since the strong post-tensioned concrete floor is needed only once on two floors. To achieve that, load-bearing partitions should be lightweight. The lightweight NERD slab system is used in the duplex apartment intermediate floor due to its low cost and light weight. To assess the structural feasibility, an idealized finite element model was done using the MIDAS GEN commercial package. The conventional type of tall building is modelled using the same software and compared with the duplex model. In high-rise buildings, providing car parking within apartment buildings often leads to a situation where different grid arrangements exist on the parking and apartment floors. Another grid arrangement for a tall building requires a transfer system, such as a transfer plate or transfer beams. This study explores the transfer plate effect due to the duplex house’s architectural form. The feasibility study was carried out with a fifty-seven storey building as a case study. The results obtained from the two analytical models were used to check the structural feasibility of lightweight EPS panels as a load-bearing panel system in duplex apartments. Keywords: EPS light-weight wall panels, duplex apartments, tall buildings