PI: Spencer Quiel
Co-PI: Clay Naito
University: Lehigh University
Industry partner: TRC Worldwide, PCI
Precast, prestressed double-tees are widely used as the floor and roof of structures that require long spans between supports and have high loading requirements, such as data centers and parking decks. Precast concrete construction is often chosen for data centers and parking decks due to multiple benefits that include rapid speed of fabrication and construction, high quality control, and customizability. As such, the reinforcement patterns used for double-tees deployed in data centers and parking decks have been increasingly customized to meet their increasing targets for loading and span. Also, the design of these facilities must address a range of significant and evolving fire hazards. Unfortunately, the design aids in current fire-resistant design standards are only formulated for a narrow range of reinforcement patterns. When using those tools, designers must make overly conservative assumptions and accept what is essentially a penalty in the amount of concrete cover needed to protect a customized reinforcement pattern from fire. The proposed project will use validated numerical models to develop enhanced design aids for fire resistance of double-tees that have been tailored to their use case. The results of this project will help the precast concrete industry in Pennsylvania to be increasingly competitive to meet the growing demands for modular and rapid construction. Pennsylvania is home to numerous companies that design and fabricate precast concrete structures, and the industrial partner for this project (TRC Worldwide) is a prominent designer of these systems. The requested funds will be used to support Lehigh doctoral student Lauren Llantero, whose research is focused on the response of precast concrete floor systems to fire loading. Cost share will be provided from two ongoing projects that are focused on the fire resistance of precast concrete beams and slabs, funded by the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).