Journal of Steel Structures & Construction

Flooring Systems with Prestressed Steel Stringers for Cost Benefit

Abstract

Ghafooripour Amin, Nidhi A, Barreto R and Rivera A

Of the existing flooring system types, steel flooring systems are often times overlooked due to their material cost. However, this problem can be addressed by prestressing steel and reducing the weight of each element. Through a three-part analysis, this research concludes that using prestressed steel for flooring systems, when in an optimal configuration, is economically viable. The first part focuses on tests to determine an optimal stringer shape for the flooring system between I-beams and trusses. Once it was determined that truss stringers required less steel for their span, stage two focused on finding an appropriate tendon profile with the goal of cost reduction in mind. The final stage used a comparative cost analysis to ensure that the flooring system with the stringer shape and prestressing tendon profile selected in the previous steps were economically beneficial to those who might choose to adopt this method. The results show that the prestressed truss with straight tendons has maximum efficiency.