Timber-Reinforced Concrete Ceiling Element Fire Safety
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wood-reinforced concrete ceiling elements face challenges in ensuring fire safety due to connections with combustible materials, requiring additional non-combustible encapsulation or fire barriers, which increases construction costs.
Innovation Solution
A ceiling element design featuring parallel wooden beams with angled edge beams that form a continuous mineral material layer, preventing fire spread between floors, and incorporating connecting members and plastic parts in the concrete to manage tensile and shear forces, while allowing for building installation spaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If ceiling elements are connected to continuous vertical wooden supports or walls using combustible materials, then the construction is simpler and costs are lower, but fire safety is compromised requiring additional non-combustible encapsulation
Solution Approach 1:
The ceiling element is segmented into distinct modular components: parallel wooden beams spaced apart, a plate-shaped reinforced concrete body resting on the beams, and edge beams at the ends. This segmentation allows the fire-resistant concrete body to be separated from combustible wooden supports, eliminating the need for additional fire barriers while maintaining connection simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The plate-shaped reinforced concrete body acts as an intermediary fire barrier between the wooden beams and the external environment. This non-combustible concrete layer prevents direct contact between combustible wooden elements and fire, eliminating the need for additional non-combustible encapsulation while maintaining structural integrity and fire safety.
2Adaptability or versatility
If wooden beams are spaced apart to create installation space for building installations, then building installations can be laid through the space between beams, but the structural complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The wooden beams serve multiple functions simultaneously: they provide structural support for the ceiling element, create installation spaces for building installations when spaced apart, and maintain dimensional stability. The plate-shaped reinforced concrete body provides both fire protection and structural reinforcement, eliminating the need for separate fire barriers.
3Strength
If a continuous plate-shaped layer of wood with a continuous plate-shaped layer of reinforced concrete is used, then the load-bearing capacity is limited and no installation space is provided, but the construction is simpler
Solution Approach 1:
The continuous wooden layer is segmented into parallel wooden beams spaced apart, creating installation spaces. The reinforced concrete body is configured as a plate-shaped structure resting on these beams with edge beams at the ends. This segmentation simultaneously increases load-bearing capacity through the concrete reinforcement and provides installation spaces, eliminating the need for additional suspended ceiling structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The ceiling element combines wood and reinforced concrete into a composite structure where the wooden beams provide dimensional stability and the plate-shaped reinforced concrete body provides fire protection and structural reinforcement. This composite design increases load-bearing capacity beyond what either material could achieve alone, while the spaced beams create installation spaces.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
Figure 5~6
AI summary
A ceiling element for forming building ceilings, designed as a timber-reinforced concrete composite, comprises at least two timber beams (1-4) running parallel to each other in one longitudinal direction of the ceiling element and a reinforced concrete body (5) with a slab-shaped section (6) resting on the timber beams (1-4). The reinforced concrete body (5) further comprises two sections, first and second, designed as edge beams (7, 8), which run at an angle to the timber beams (1-4) and abut the opposite end faces (9, 10) of the timber beams (1-4). At least one connecting element (11) is attached to each of the two opposite end faces (9, 10) of a timber beam (1-4), projecting beyond the respective end face (9, 10) of the timber beam (1-4) and embedded in the concrete of the respective edge beam (7, 8). (Fig. 3)