Sustainability Analysis and Shear Capacity of BubbleDeck Slabs with Openings

Abstract

The issue of sustainability has become very important in the construction process in recent decades. BubbleDeck slab system is a new innovation of sustainable structure element to be used as slab system. The advantages of using this system result in a significant reduction in construction costs and lead to economic, social, and environmental benefits up to (50%) compared to traditional slab alternatives, also, self-weight decreasing by (35%) leading to savings in the use of construction materials. Accordingly, smaller concrete quantities have to be produced and then transported to the final destination, a considerable saving on supporting members like foundation and column systems, regarding the concrete production and the transportation on road networks, energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions have limited. In this study an investigation was carried out on ten two-way BubbleDeck slabs, (2000x2000x230) mm dimensions with internal hollow plastic spheres of (180) mm diameter. This study orients to investigate the load carrying capacity and determine the impact parameters on increasing the sustainability effect through the input raw materials, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions for the BubbleDecks compared to solid slab. Calculation of amount of input raw materials, energy consumption, and CO2 emission for BubbleDeck slabs, showed that there is a reduction in the amount of the input raw materials by (20%-27%) and reduced the energy consumption and CO2 emission by (25%-27%) and (20%-23%) when bubble distributed inside or outside critical section, respectively.