Cold-formed light gauge steel for rapid deployable shelters

• Main Author: Wu, Hongjun.
• Other Authors: Chiew Sing Ping
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Civil engineering::Structures and design
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/15907
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In disaster-prone countries, the victims involved are often left with basic accommodation needs. It takes much time and cost to resettle the victims, giving them basic accommodation for at least a year to two. However, most of the time, funds are limited. Therefore, we need to build shelters which are safe to use and durable. However, cost is often a restraint. In this project, we research on the feasibility of implementing a rapid deployable shelter for the victims after a disaster using cold-formed steel to meet the goals of structurally sound shelters, cost effectiveness and durability. Cold formed steel is used because of several advantages, few of the obvious advantages are, its strength, durability, and light weight nature, which will be discussed further in this report. The rapid deployable shelter, which we name, Brisk Monster, must be structurally stable, cost effective, fast and easy to erect and remove, as well as easy instructions to follow so as to reduce cost incurred in training people to erect the structure. Our design is based on simple structures which all unknowns are structurally determinate. In this report, calculations serve as an account for the structural stability. British Code, BS 5950: Part 5 is used for the calculations. In order to keep the cost low and at the same time make it feasible and easy to erect, Brisk Monster is designed to be made using a single sized lipped channels, which is one of the biggest challenge in this project. In our design, self-tapping screws are also used as it is cheap, fast and easy to fix and less cost in incurred as no pre-drilled holes are needed. In order to prove the use of self-tapping screws is indeed justifiable in terms of strength, we had performed experiments on the I-columns to confirm the strength of it. The I-columns are fabricated by connecting 2 lipped channels back-to-back using self tapping screws. We used Euler’s method to calculate the strength of the I-column and the experiment has proven that this method is valid for the calculation of I-column fabricated using self-tapping screws. On top of that, we used autoCAD software and Microsoft Publisher to develop an instruction manual serve to give simple and short but specific instructions to erect Brisk Monster. We consider this as practical implementation of Brisk Monster. Every component of Brisk Monster, from the structural design to materials used to implementation is coherent with our goal of structural stability, effective cost, fast and easy erection, and feasibility.