Proceeding the 6th Civil Engineering Conference in Asia Region: Embracing the Future through Sustainability ISBN 978-602-8605-08-3

SEMI PRECAST SLAB AS AN ALTERNATIVE METHOD TO PROMOTE GREEN CONSTRUCTION IN RESIDENTIAL HOUSE PROJECT
Suprapto Siswosukarto
Structural Laboratory, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Engineering Faculty, Gadjah Mada University E-mail: dhomase@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT
The increasing trend on residential house built as two storey floors or more means the need for a more efficient of slab construction method. The conventional wooden formwork is considered uneconomical for its expensive cost of materials and labor, longer construction time, and most importantly for producing significant amount waste of wooden formwork. As an alternative method for slab construction on residential houses, semi-precast slab is introduced. The slab concreting work is divided into two stages, namely half slab thickness concrete precast and in-situ concrete works. The semi-precast component is made into panels of similar width provided with two equally spaced longitudinal bars. The semi-precast method is designed as such so that all the construction sequences can be carried out by common labour. The methods have been successfully implemented in many residential houses projects. Well performance of slab structural behavior was observed both in the site projects and laboratory work. In addition, lesser wooden formwork was needed and relatively shorter slab construction time was achieved. Keywords: Concrete, Construction, Semi-Precast, Slab, Panel.

PRELIMINARY
There is an increase in trend on residential house built as two storey floors or more. This means that there is a need of a more efficient of slab construction method. The application of conventional construction method elaborating wooden formwork can be considered uneconomical due to the following reasons. The construction of wooden formwork requires wood, bamboo, wooden panel, etc. at certain quantities depending the area of the floor to be constructed. The larger the floor area the more materials will be needed. The construction also demands the involvement of some wooden skills labor and take time for the construction to be completed. These means that traditional concrete floor construction method need more cash for materials and labors. Another disadvantages of this construction method is the production of significant wooden formwork waste when construction completed. When more multistory residential house are built there will be in need of more wood and bamboo and, hence more wooden waste formwork to be produced. This situation might be in contrast with the wood preservation program to combat global warming. As an attempt to solve this problem, the semi-precast slab construction method is introduced. Semiprecast concrete slab is not a new system in concrete construction slab method. This system has been extensively developed in the world of construction buildings and bridges. However, its application on construction of multistory residential house has not been as widespread as that in building construction. Even so, some developers have introduced and implemented semi-precast system on the housing project. One of them is the lantai keraton flooring system that consists of continuation of composite concrete ceramics floor (http://lantaikeraton.com/). The flooring system consists of an array of ceramic panels and is reinforced with steel bars and concrete mortar. This slab system is claimed to have equivalent strength to that of monolithic concrete floor. Another semi precast concrete slab product is called baliton that consists of an arranged of concrete panels, each panel having dimension of 20 cm wide and 12 cm thick (http://infiniti.indo-network.co.id/497571/balok-lantai-instan-beton.htm ). There is also a precast concrete flooring products where the concrete slab system is divided into short segments (http://natapersada.indonetwork.co.id/1493443/lantai-beton-pracetak.htm). There are many others precast concrete products available, however, it seems that, in general, the precast concrete flooring system has not gained enough popularity among people in society. The general public seems still to be reluctant to adopt the precast system in the construction of their house. One reasons for this might be due to the

S. Siswosukarto

understanding that concrete precast system is always associated with a complex construction system, the need of heavy construction machinery as well as high construction cost. For that reason, a semi precast concrete slab system is introduced. The construction system is easy and can be carried out entirely by local labor without the need of heavy equipments.

SEMI-PRECAST CONCRETE SLAB CONCEPT

In general, the semi-precast concrete slab system consists of two components, namely 1) precast concrete slab panel, also serve as formwork and 2) cast in place (in-situ) concrete component. The size of precast panels is determined taking into account the capability of the workforce in the field. Since no heavy machinery involved in the construction, the dimension of each precast panels will be dictated by the limit weight of concrete panel the masons capable to lift. Therefore, the dimension of the precast panel is set to have width of 200mm and 60mm thick, the panel length follows the width of slab. On the basis of this dimension, the calculations show that for panel span of 3m - 3.5m, the precast concrete panel would gain self-weight for 90kg -100kg. This slab panel weight is still within the capacity limits of weight that the masons can lift in a group of 2 to 4 people. Figure 1 illustrates the semi-precast concrete slab components. Components of semi precast slab 1. Support beams 2. Precast concrete panel 3. In situ concrete

Fig. 1: Semi-precast concrete slab components

Each precast concrete panel is reinforced with two 8mm reinforcing plain bars which is extended at each panel ends to provide anchorages system. The number of precast concrete panel depends on the size of the concrete floor to be made, for larger floor, more precast concrete panels will be needed. When the arranged of precast concrete panels is already in place, in situ concreting will be carried out on top of its surfaces. To maintain composite action between precast concrete panel and in-situ concrete component, a system of shear connector is provided in the precast panels. To determine the reliability of the semiprecast concrete slab system, a series of static load test was conducted in the laboratory. Testing was conducted to simulate the field conditions of the semi-precast concrete slab. The test aims to investigate the mechanical behavior of semi precast system in comparison to monolithic slab actions under loading. The slab capacity to support load and its stiffness behavior under loading would be of interest parameters.

LABORATORY TESTING
The laboratory tests were conducted on full scale specimens of concrete slab model that could be divided into two groups of slab model, namely monolithic model (PM) and semi-precast model (PK). The clean length of the specimens is 3,000 mm and total slab thickness of 120 mm. The dimension of each precast concrete slab panels was 60x200x3.000mm. Each precast concrete panel was reinforced with 2 longitudinal bar of 8 mm diameter placed in the middle section and 100mm distance apart. BJ37 steel reinforcing bar with fy of 240 MPa and concrete strength of 15MPa were adopted in research. Low quality of concrete was used in order to simulate the common concreting practice of in society.

3D illustration concrete panel

Arrangement of steel bars in panel

Fig. 2: Schematic illustration of concrete panel and its bars reinforcement

TS4B-29

S. Siswosukarto

Once precast concrete panels installed at its placed, the top reinforcing steel bars of 8mm diameter were mounted on the surface of the precast panels. The steel bars spacing was 200mm. After completion of arranging the steel bars, in-situ concreting followed. Figure 2 presents the schematic illustration of concrete panel and arrangement of its steel reinforcement. Meanwhile, Figure 3 illustrates the condition of semi-precast slab and monolithic slab. Testing was performed after the in-situ concrete component reached the age of 28 days. Loading system was carried out in two stages, namely 1) repetitive elastic loading followed by 2) loading that lead to collapsing the concrete slab specimens. Repetitive elastic loading is carried out to simulate the action of live load on the floor. The magnitude of the repetitive elastic load was limited to less than 30% f'c. The slab performance is measured based on the characteristic of slab stiffness at each loading cycle. After completion of repetitive elastic testing, similar specimen is loaded further until its collapsed. This later test was intended to determine the maximum capacity of the concrete slab specimens. Schematic arrangement of testing for slab specimens is presented in Figure 4.

Fig. 3: Illustration of slab condition for semi-precast slab (left) and monolithic slab (right)

specimen

Pin support Roller support

Fig. 4: Schematic arrangement of testing frame and instrumentation TEST EXECUTION

Tests conducted in the Structural Laboratory, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Gadjah Mada University. The slab specimen was treated to have fixed support at both ends. This was elaborated by placing tension bar connecting both supports that was equipped with adjustment bolt. As previously mentioned, the testing was carried out in two stages of loading. The load was applied through hydraulic jack and recorded by load cell connected to data logger. Specimen deformation under loading was monitored through series of LVDT mounted in the testing frame and also connected to data logger. The first stage of repeated static loading, the load was gradually applied up to about 15% of ultimate load and then the load was released. After a few minutes pause, the load was again gradually applied until it reaches 15% of ultimate load and then being removed. Similar testing procedure

TS4B-30

S. Siswosukarto

was repeated for 10 times. Following the completion of the first stages of testing, the second stage test was performed where loading was gradually applied until the specimen reached its maximum capacity and collapsed. Figure 5 shows the preparation of test on slab model width of 600mm.

Fig. 5: Test preparation on slab model width of 600mm RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
From the results of repeated elastic load testing on concrete slab model, the relationship between applied forced and deformation for each load cycle is obtained. From this relationship the magnitude of stiffness of concrete slab model at every cycle can be determined. The result of the calculated stiffness of concrete slab width of 200mm for both monolithic and semi-precast is presented in Figure 6 for monolithic slab (left) and for semi-precast slab (right). Different specimen width of 400mm and 600mm were also tested, but due to limited space for presenting data only one series of specimen width of 200mm is available.
1400

1400 1200 1000

Beban (N)
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4

1200

1000

Beban (N)

800

800 600 400 200 0 0 0.5 1 Lendutan (mm) 1.5 2 2.5

600

400

200

Lendutan (mm)
Siklus r1 Siklus 4 Siklus r8 Siklus 1 Siklus r5 Siklus 8 Siklus r2 Siklus 5 Siklus r9 Siklus 2 Siklus r6 Siklus 9 Siklus r3 Siklus 6 Siklus 3 Siklus r7 Siklus r4 Siklus 7

Fig. 6: The calculated stiffness of each cycle for monolithic slab (left) and semiprecast slab (right)
Sikl;us r1 Siklus 4 Siklus r8 Siklus 1 Siklus 8 Siklus r2 Siklus 5 Siklus r9 Siklus 2 Siklus 9 Siklus r3 Siklus 6 Siklus 3
Siklus r10 Siklus 10

Siklus r4 Siklus 7

Siklus r5

Siklus r6

Siklus r7

Siklus r10

Siklus 10

Figure 6 indicates that there is no significant difference in the magnitude of stiffness for monolithic and semi-precast slab. Similar behavior was observed in another series of specimen width of 400mm and 600mm. This finding strongly suggests that there is no significant different in behavior of monolithic concrete slab and semi-precast slab. This means that semi-precast slab will be able to closely behave structurally as that of monolithic slab. Another finding reveals that the differences in magnitude of stiffness between monolithic and semi-precast slab tend to diminish as the number of concrete panel increases. This finding suggests when all concrete panels already installed the behavior of semi-precast concrete slab would be similar to that of monolithic slab. Hence it can be concluded that semi-precast slab will have similar flexural stiffness characteristic to that of monolithic slab. Another result of testing concerns with the structural characteristic of specimen under loading up to failure. Similarly, many testing were conducted on series of slab specimens, and the results is presented Figure 7. The figure depicts the results of testing for specimen width of 200mm, 400mm and 600mm. Figure 7 shows the relationship between load and deformation of specimen width of 200mm, 400mm and 600mm loading up to collapse for both monolithic and semi-precast. The figure suggests that the load

TS4B-31

S. Siswosukarto

capacity of semi-precast slab and monolithic slab is nearly similar, especially during the early stage of loading or in the elastic range of materials. When loading continued, semi-precast slab tends to give lower load capacity. The differences in load capacity tend to increase with the increasing number of concrete panels. In terms of deformation, semi-precast slab tends to have shorter deformation than that of monolithic as shown for specimen width 400mm and 600mm, but for specimen width 200m the result is on the way around. It is suggested that the differences in magnitude of load capacity between semiprecast and monolithic slabs might be attributed to the differences in tensioning level of tension bar in each specimen. Higher tensioning level of the bar will result in higher load capacity. From load-failure loading results, it can be concluded that the load capacity of semi-precast slab will be sufficient to support actual loading in structures. Therefore, overall conclusion can be drawn that semi-precast slab method is structurally reliable to be applied in concrete slab construction system.

a)

Concrete Slab with of 200mm

b) Concrete slab width of 400mm

c) concrete slab width of 600mm

Fig. 7: Result of load-failure test on specimen width of 200mm, 400mm and 600mm

TS4B-32

S. Siswosukarto

FIELD APPLICATIONS
Semi-precast slab system has been applied in several places as shown in Figure 8 and Figure 9. Based on the implementation of the semi-precast method in concrete floor construction, there are several note can be taken, 1) the construction system is quite easy to learn, 2) faster construction time, 3) less number of wooden panel needed, 4) less number of bamboo required, and all of these yield significant amount of cost saving. When little amount of wood and bamboo were used for the slab formwork hence there will be a few of those that will be discarded as waste. Based on these aspects, it is expected that the method will be able to contribute to the environmental quality improvement program and can be considered as one form of green construction method to combat global warming. The precast panel is supported by light arrangement of support from bamboo. Precast panel serve as formwork, hence no wooden panel is needed for flooring construction.

Fig. 8: Arrangement of precast concrete panels supported by light shoring.

Arranging top steel reinforcing bars on top surfaces of concrete panels. The steel placed with spacing of 200mm. Top steel is arranged for both directions, long and short directions.

Fig. 9: Arrangement of top steel reinforcement on top of concrete panel surfaces

TS4B-33

S. Siswosukarto

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

From the results of experiments and observation from field application, some conclusions can be drawn, as follows: 1. The structural characteristic of semi-precast slab tend to be close to that of the behavior of monolithic concrete slab, hence the system is potential to be applied in floor construction system. 2. Field applications show ease construction method, faster construction time, much less need of wooden panels as well as bamboo and, hence, there is significant reduction amount of waste wooden formwork. 3. This study is limited by the slab width of only up to 3 concrete panels, therefore further research needs necessary to study the behavior of semi-precast slab panels for full panels floor as well as another aspects related to semi-precast panel behavior.

REFERENCES
SNI 03-2847-2002 (2007). Tata Cara Perhitungan Struktur Beton Untuk Bangunan Gedung, Surabaya, Badan Standarisasi Nasional. http://lantaikeraton.com/, accessed on 5 Mei 2013. (http://infiniti.indonetwork.co.id/497571/balok-lantai-instan-beton.htm, accessed on Mei 2013 (http://natapersada.indonetwork.co.id/1493443/lantai-beton-pracetak.htm, accessed on 5 Mei 2013

TS4B-34