WOLEES SUSTAINABLE HOARDING SYSTEM

DETAILED REPORT OF THE INVENTION

Contents
1 The team behind the innovation ...................................................................................................3
2 Need for innovation.....................................................................................................................3
3 The Innovation ............................................................................................................................5
3.1 Our innovative hoarding Installation process .............................................................................5
3.2 Semi-rigid joint design method ..................................................................................................9
4 Challenges ................................................................................................................................ 11
5 The theory and mathematical formulations of semi-rigid joints .................................................. 12
5.1 Modelling of semi-rigid joints and plastic analysis ............................................................. 13
5.2 Formulation of joint stiffness for nonlinear structural analysis............................................ 13
5.3 Testing for structural response ........................................................................................... 14
5.4 results of experiments ........................................................................................................ 17
6. Application of semi-rigid joint for Wo Lees sustainable hoarding system .....................................19
6.1 Practical hoarding systems .................................................................................................19
6.2 Design approach by nonlinear analysis with semi-rigid joint .............................................. 20
6.3 Comparison of two bolted joint systems by real application ............................................... 20
7 Achievements and improvements to hoarding system ................................................................ 22
8 Overall benefits and impact to industry...................................................................................... 22
8.1 Construction cost ............................................................................................................... 22
8.2 Fabrication & Installation ..................................................................................................22
8.3 Health hazard .................................................................................................................... 22
8.4 Health & Safety Risk ......................................................................................................... 23
8.5 Reusability ........................................................................................................................ 23
9 Roadmap for market introduction and adoption ......................................................................... 23
10 Ongoing developments .......................................................................................................... 24
10.1 Traceability of used steel components ................................................................................... 24
10.2 Cold-formed steel plate for modular deck unit .......................................................................25
10 References ............................................................................................................................ 27

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1 The team behind the innovation

The team was formed when the inventor discussed with the Director of steelworks company, Wo
Lee Limited, who expressed its wish to enhance the competitiveness of the local industry in
steelworks and steel structure construction. Apart from Wo Lees background as a decade-long
supplier of steel sections in Hong Kong, there is a trend of using more steel as building material.
For example, Singapore offers credit to a construction project when more steel and less concrete
is used. Further, advanced countries like USA, Japan and UK, steel building is popular and this
trend is also growing in Mainland China. Relatively speaking, Hong Kong is behind in this aspect
of using innovative and intelligent design for improvement in construction speed which obviously
flavour steel over other materials as it needs not require time for formworks and it could be
essentially pre-fabricated in shops.

As an employee of Wo Lee Limited, the inventor proposed a research topic to Professor S.H Lo
of Civil Engineering Department of The University of Hong Kong as his PhD programme and for
solving the problem of site and street welding of hoarding in Hong Kong, for which the nuisance
comes from molten welding slags hurting pedestrians and even sometimes oxyacetylene gas
bottles causing explosion and fire as well as others such as lack of qualified welders. This project
is served to solve the problem of steel-welded hoarding as well as an illustration for semi-rigid
bolted connections for fast, safe and efficient steel frame systems potentially used in construction
of domestic and commercial buildings. To this, a team is formed between Wo Lee Limited as a
designer & fabricator and HKU as a technical advisor for the experiment and numerical analysis.

2 Need for innovation

Hoarding is a mandatory requirement around construction sites. It provides physical barrier to restrict access
by the public to construction site with dangerous environment as well as protecting the public from falling
debris produced by a construction site. For constructions of structures with certain height, and situated close
to any pedestrian streets, a covered walkway is usually required. A covered walkway is essentially a hoarding
steel structure with one or two metal plates fixed to the structure as horizontal overhead covers, and
corrugated metal sheet welded to the structural columns which act as vertical barrier to restrict public access
to the construction site.

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While appropriate in the last century when labors over-supplied in Hong Kong with relatively high
unemployment rate than to date, the prior practices regarding welded hoarding contains several shortcomings.
Firstly, in the design aspect, an engineer can choose to minimize design work by adopting the prescribed
hoarding design which is the industry standard produced decade ago. Although simple routine calculations
such as resistance of connection components, structural member strength and the overall stability of the
structure are carried out, many of the critical design decisions have already been made by the original designer
of the prescribed standard hoarding catering for a general scenario decade ago when the labor shortage was
not so acute as to date (see figure 1 for labour shortage in 2015).

Figure 1 Ten worker types in construction with most shortage in manpower (April 2015 construction industry
labor shortage survey data)

On the other hand, for the design of a new steel structural system to meet the condition to date requires
considerable time and specific knowledge for hoarding and temporary works from the design engineers who
are more commonly involved in design of permanent structures.

It would be desirable to provide a hoarding system which (1) has been pre-designed (to shorten the design and
fabrication time and minimize design flaws by the engineer); (2) contains a minimum amount of on-site welding
( quicker, safer and will not damage steel work for reuse purpose) and (3) can be reused for at least a couple of
projects before being discarded as waste. The inventor believes that this invention can reduces the need for
skilled labors such as welders in Hong Kongs construction industry, which causes delay on construction
projects such as public housing. It may also prevent delay project delivery caused by inadequate engineers
design, such as a case of footbridge, where insufficient stiffness of the key steel connections has caused
excessive deflection to the main span and results in cracking of welds.

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3 The Innovation

3.1 Our innovative hoarding Installation process

Figure 2 an excerpt from our patent

Our design concept describes a liquid-counter weight modular hoarding system that can be
assembled by the simple fastening of bolts on beam to column joint location with prefabricated module
that shorten the on-site construction time as well as a reduction in installation efforts. Figure 3 to 9
illustrates the on-site erection process with our system:

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Figure 3 Hoarding erection stage 1

Figure 4 Hoarding erection stage 2

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Figure 5 Hoarding erection stage 3

Figure 6 Hoarding erection stage 4

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Figure 7 Hoarding erection stage 5

Figure 8 Hoarding erection stage 6

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 Figure 9 Hoardings completed form

3.2 Semi-rigid joint design method

In accordance with Hong Kongs Steel code 2011: Chapter 6.11 Connection Classification in Analysis,
the structural performance for a range of pre-designed connection types which are specifically
designed for hoarding have been investigated experimentally and numerically. With those connections
already designed, engineers are not required to provide a design which may not be as fabrication-
friendly and installation-friendly as the design we provide. The lack of concrete counter weight and
concrete footing avoided the need of certain workers that are in chronic shortage in Hong Kong (see
figure 9). The amount of welding work is also reduced due to less stiffeners being required (see figure
10). The extensive use of welded stiffeners are labor-intensive, but unavoidable in the past in order to
meet the requirement for rigid joints whereas we no longer require this when using semi-rigid joints
allowing for a certain degree of joint flexibility is used in our design.

Figure 10 Web stiffening between traditional design and our design

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Furthermore, with the relatively narrow range in sizes and shapes of hoarding structures, the range of
connection options we provide are proven adequate for most of the hoarding requirements. Case in
point, only one type of our pre-designed connection was used in two of our real life construction
projects. Currently, we have 9 types of prescribed connections that can be used for our hoarding
system and 1 type have been used and approved by Building Authority so far.

Figure 11 manpower comparison from prior hoarding practice

In terms of safety enhancement, the Wo lees Sustainable hoarding system reduces 45% labour
cost in replacing welding by bolting and material cost by 25% on average. As bolted structures
are less easily to damage for repeated uses, for sustainability re-used steels can be adopted for
temporary structures such as hoarding, provided that traceable mill certificates are available for
the steels with sectional dimensions rechecked for conformity to the BSEN 10034 (1993) or the
design strength of the re-used steels is limited to 170 MPa according to Hong Kong Steel Code
2011.

The cost-effectiveness and environmental merits in designing semi-rigid joints to BSEN-1993-1-

8(2005) are demonstrated in chapter 5. This advanced and practical application of nonlinear
analysis coupled with the idea of semi-rigid connections appears to be innovative in improving
considerably our current design technology of steel structures.

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In the conventional analysis and design of steel stuctures, joints between structural members such as
beams and columns are usually assumed to be either perfectly rigid or pinned for simplificity. This
implies that the angle between joint members are either unchanged for rigid joints or zero moment
for pinned joints. In other words, the connection stiffness of rigid joints is set to infinitely large
whereas that of the pinned connection is negligibly small. Unfortunately for practical constructions,
joints of steel frames are generally lie
between these two extremes. In many
cases, extensive efforts are made either to
strengthen a joint just to satisfy the rigid
joint assumption or to remove restraints to
allow free rotation in order to achieve
pinned joint behaviour. In practice, specially
for the temporartry hoarding steel portals,
both of these actions are considered as Figure 12 Material cost and Fabrication cost of steel frames
uneconomical if we could account for the with different joint stiffness
stiffness and the strength of joints in a
frame such that the member capacity and true joint behaviours are properly assessed. The idea of
semi-rigid joint design would lead to an improved safety margin and a considerable saving in material
and fabrication works as shown in Figure 12, as the characteristics of joint connections are rigorously
analyzed and designed up to their full potential.

It is interesting to see that recent design codes including the BSEN 1993-1-8 (2005) and the Code of
practice for structural uses of steel Hong Kong (2011) allow for the use of semi-rigid behaviour in
joints for steel frame design. In American LRFD (2016) Code, the joint types are further classified into
fully-restrained and partially-restrained joints. All these considerations indicate that semi-rigid joint
concept is well received in practical structural design. However, surprizingly, engineers seldom make
use of these realistic behaviours of semi-rigid joints for a more optimal design.

4 Challenges

One reason for engineers not to use bolted connections in place of welded joints is the issue of
producing a rational design allowing for joint stiffness to maintain stability. Indeed, it is an engineers
challenge to produce rigidly-behaved bolted joint. As a result, an engineer would commonly avoid
such challenge by over-designing by excessive welding a joint with lots of stiffeners (which requires
welding) and leave the fabricator with lots of work and the installation worker with more difficult
tasks. Some experienced engineers realise the advantages of using bracings so some hoarding were
added with small bracing at corners of the portal which helps in stiffening the joint but this,
unfortunately, results in additional work and inconvenience, especially the positioning of the bracing
requires careful monitoring.

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 Figure 13 Hoarding systems in Hong Kong

Another difficulty is on the adequacy of designing the portal under large vertical loads at its ultimate
limit state. Because the portal is unbraced without large cross braces which are obstacles to
pedestrian passage, it is commonly classified as sway or ultra-sway frame accordingly to the Hong
Kong Steel Code (2011). This sway characteristic leads to the use of second order direct analysis
which is adopted in this project. The use of second-order direct analysis for hoarding portal appears
to be new not only in Hong Kong, but also in world since the analysis and design involve nonlinear
iteration analysis. This new nonlinear analysis method produces safer and more economical design as
the traditional linear analysis commonly over-designs redundant members but under-design critical
members whereas the nonlinear analysis avoids this hurdle.

In the process of adopting all these new features for nonlinear design of semi-rigid bolted hoarding,
independent checking engineers including those from consultants and authority made extensive
explanations, checking and evaluations before their final agreement to endorse the design. To this,
the effort of getting through the rigorous check is enormous.

5 The theory and mathematical formulations of semi-rigid joints

The design standard, methods of analysis and the geometrical and material behaviours of various
countries and places are listed in TABLE 1. The structural performance of semi-rigid joint design is to
be evaluated under two loading situations. Relative to rigid joint connections, portal frames of semi-
rigid joint connections are to be assessed for (i) the sidesway movement under a horizontal load and
(ii) the buckling load under vertical forces.

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 Table 1 Design standard and methods of analysis

5.1 Modelling of semi-rigid joints and plastic analysis

For plastic analysis, a yield function is used to simulate the gradual plasticization of a section. This
approach is fairly standard for the frame analysis and it is reported by Chan et al. (2017) to which the
reader should refer for details of mathematical formulations

5.2 Formulation of joint stiffness for nonlinear structural analysis

Nonlinear analysis allows for the effects of instability and buckling which are not considered in the
linear analysis so it requires additional check by equations for stability check in various design codes.
The stiffness and the strength of a joint are the two basic quantities in developing a joint model to be
used in the analysis of a structural frame. The initial stage of elastic analysis will be performed based
on joint connections with initial rotational stiffness Sj corresponding to the bending moment Mj,Ed.
The reason for the elastic analysis in the initial stage is to create a simple moment-rotation
relationship of the joint and produce a bi-linear model for the more general nonlinear analysis. The
ultimate moment Mj,Rd is a function of the plastic modulus of the steel as material yielding will occurs
when the bending moment exceeds the ultimate moment (Mj,Ed > Mj,Rd). Iterations are therefore

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required to verify at each step whether material has already yielded and the joint stiffness ought to
be updated accordingly.

The values are chosen by EC 1993-1-8 standard as listed in TABLE 2.

Classification of joints by stiffness according to EC 1993-1

Joint type Joint stiffness

Flexible (pinned) 0.5 EI/L

Fixed (w/o braces) 25 EI/L

Fixed (with brace) 8 EI/L

semi-rigid Other values of EI/L

Table 2 Classification of Joint by stiffness according to EC3 1993-1-8

Various joint stiffness and base stiffness are assumed and expressed as a multiplier of the stiffness of
the connecting member EI/L.

5.3 Testing for structural response

The basic purpose of the experiment is to investigate the relative contribution of the basic
components to the overall joint structural response. The outcome of the experiment can provides
design guidance to help engineers optimizes their joint details, which improves the fabrication and
installation speed.

Three methods for the determination of joint stiffness are available as (1) component method in
Eurocode-1-3-8, 2005 (2) numerical method and (3) experimental method. This section describes the
experiments conducted at The University of Hong Kong. The dimensions of the original semi-rigid
joint are shown in Figure 14 and its variances shown in Figure 15.

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 Figure 14 Connection type Z1

Figure 15 All connection types

The experimental setup for the test of semi-rigid joint connections is shown in Figure 16. In the
connection supports, the specimen in-plane rotations is non-restricted to divert all bending moments
to the main connection. A downward vertical translations to up to 100mm were measured at specific
locations by transducers. The main span of the beams on both ends of the connection was vertically
loaded with two downward forces imposed by two high strength rods over slide-able base pad. A
preloaded force corresponding to specified torque required for each corresponding bolt sizes was
applied to the bolts using a manual torque wrench previously calibrated. The joint was loaded with a
sagging moment by the vertical loads with actuator following a controlled displacement protocol.
The load applied to the specimen was measured by the load cell situated below the load actuator.
The column is free ended and is allowed to rotate and translate in all directions to prevent the
column ends receiving any bending moments.

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Figure 16 photograph of the experiment

Figure 17 Elevation of experimental setup

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5.4 results of experiments

The specimen after the experiment in Figure 18 below indicates a majority of joint types were fails by
column web buckling and are in good agreement with numerical results performed by Finite element
models. The joint ultimate capacity, as indicated by failure load in kN, was mainly determined by the
column web in compression and the rest of the components to a lesser extend. Their structural
properties from the experiments are presented as moment-rotation curves in Figure 19. From the
same figure, the variation in structural response demonstrates the change in flexibilities as the result
of modifying the dimensional parameters in the basic components. Furthermore, as indicated by the
classification of requirement for semi rigid joint according to the Eurocode ( purple lines in Figure
19), all specimens are performed as middle range semi-rigid joint, which indicates that the joints
exhibit moderate amount of stiffness & strength, and are highly suitable for the beam-column
moment joint of Wo Lees hoarding system, where loadings are relatively small compared to longer
span structures and permanent structures.

TEST TYPE SPECIMEN NO FAILURE MODE comment FAILURE LOAD (KN) AVERAGE (KN)
1A bolt seize failure good results matching hypothesis 107.2
2A column web buckle good results matching hypothesis 137.3
Type A 116.675
3A column web buckle good results matching hypothesis 116.5
4A column web buckle good results matching hypothesis 105.7
1B column web buckle good results matching hypothesis 137.7
Type B 147.75
2B column web buckle good results matching hypothesis 157.8
1C column web buckle inadequate bolt torque cause bolt slip 124
Type C 111.3
2C column web buckle lateral torsion causes uneven force distribution 98.6
1D column web buckle inadequate bolt torque cause bolt slip 96.6
Type D 100.3
2D column web buckle inadequate bolt torque cause bolt slip 104
1E column web buckle good results matching hypothesis 121.6
Type E 123.5
2E column web buckle good results matching hypothesis 125.4
1F column web buckle good results matching hypothesis 99.6
Type F 108.9
2F not observed lateral torsion causes uneven force distribution 118.2
1G column web buckle good results matching hypothesis 122.4
Type G 118.2
2G not observed lateral torsion causes uneven force distribution 114
1H column web buckle good results matching hypothesis 140.8
Type H 127.6
2H not observed lateral torsion causes uneven force distribution 114.4

Table 3 summary of experiment results

Figure 18 column web buckling as the main failure mode

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Figure 19 Experiment results of semi-rigid joint

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 In Figure 20, numerical results are compared with the experimental results and are in close
agreement to one another in terms of the structural response. Column buckling is also observed.

Figure 20 Numerical result of one of the specimen

6. Application of semi-rigid joint for Wo Lees sustainable hoarding system

6.1 Practical hoarding systems

The steel grade used is S275 and the nominal material properties in HK Steel Code (2011) are
adopted for the entire design. The loads assumed include the vertical load from falling debris and
wind in different load cases. Figure 21 shows the three hoarding types that were used in two of the
construction projects performed by YSK2 Engineering Limited which is a contractor using the product
by Wo Lee Limited. The moment-rotation curves of the semi-rigid joint are provided by laboratory
test results and FE analysis as depicted in Figure 20 determined by a nonlinear finite element
analysis.

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 Figure 21 Hoarding systems with semi-rigid joints adopted to the projects by YSK2

6.2 Design approach by nonlinear analysis with semi-rigid joint

No post-analysis check on the resistance and the stiffness is required to individual joint components
of the semi-rigid joint during the design process. If the force and moment at the beam-column joint
exceeds the moment-rotation capacity of the joint, the computer analysis will limit the maximum
moment to the strength of the section and the joint by a moment redistribution process. Hence, the
designer could directly check the capacity of the frame without concerning for the adaptation to a
particular joint type. On the contrary, in case a joint is found to be inadequate to resist the design
load, the designer could, for instance, add additional stiffener at the column web to increase the
stiffness and strengthen the system. As a result, joint connections could be optimized based on the
concept of finite joint stiffness and there is a considerable saving in the fabrication cost and time
over on-site welding.

6.3 Comparison of two bolted joint systems by real application

The braced joint system is a more economical structural system that derives its lateral stability from
miniature bracing which has sufficient resistance for small structure like the conventional hoarding
frame. On the other hand, semi-rigid joints present an even more economical solution in providing
lateral stability to small scaled structural systems. By adopting semi-rigid joint design approach, it
may be possible that adequate stiffness is already provided by removing the miniature bracing
component of the braced joint system. An illustration of cantilever action deriving from semi-rigid
joint in the construction stage of the cantilever hoarding type is shown in Figure 22. Has semi-rigid
joint design method not been used, the joint would usually be assumed as pinned and temporary
propping or bracing ought to be installed to maintain its temporary structural stability. Comparison
of material usage by steel member is shown in Figure 23. The braced joint system has been used for
numerous projects whereas the semi-rigid joint system has been adopted in two projects by the time
of this publication. Since both systems share the same benefits of bolting as the primary installation
method, two major aspects are compared below.

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(i) the Second-order Direct Analysis Method with semi-rigid joint results in a considerable 21%
saving compared with the braced joint system by traditional linear (effective length) method.

(ii) A semi-rigid joint with a relatively lower but realistic stiffness often already provides adequate
lateral stability for small-scale non-braced frames.

Figure 22 Photo of the Cantilever hoarding system

Figure 23 Cost comparison of the two economical hoarding systems

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7 Achievements and improvements to hoarding system

In this project, the advanced and practical application of nonlinear analysis coupled with the idea
of semi-rigid connections is considered as innovative in improving our current design technology
of steel structures considerably, although care should be taken to the slippage of bolted joints
producing an increased sway, P- moment and the effective length of columns. In terms of safety
enhancement, the new green bolting hoarding system reduces 45% labour cost in replacing
welding by bolting and material cost by 25% on average. When compared with welded frames,
bolted structures are less easily damaged for repeated uses, for sustainability re-used steels can
be adopted for temporary structures such as hoarding, provided that traceable mill certificates are
available for the steels with sectional dimensions rechecked for conformity to the BSEN 10034
(1993) or the design strength of the re-used steels is limited to 170 MPa according to Hong Kong
Steel Code 2011.

8 Overall benefits and impact to industry

There are a number of advantages through the use of this invention.

8.1 Construction cost

The traditional design based on a linear elastic analysis requires a higher tonnage of steel for taking
the same design load because, in general, a more conservative effective buckling length is assumed.
Indeed, in a more economical approach, the member section and the joint stiffness and strength will
all be taken into consideration in the design in order to achieve a higher performance. The
construction time can be substantially reduced as members are pre-fabricated and transported to
site without the need of adding bracings or on-site welding to provide lateral stability.

8.2 Fabrication & Installation

When fully rigid was assumed in the analysis in the past, it required extensive welding and hence the
fabrication cost of the hoarding system was much increased. This is a critical problem in many places
like Hong Kong where qualified welders are in shortage. For the proposed semi-rigid joint design, the
joints can be bolted with sufficient but finite joint stiffness, and welding usually is not required. To
date in Hong Kong and in many other places as well, labour is an important part in the cost
estimation and welding cost can be as high as 20% of the total cost of a hoarding structure. The semi-
rigid joint alternative allows the hoarding system to be more economical and easier to fabricate by
avoiding welding which further causes health hazard because of its poisonous gas emission and
falling weld slags.

8.3 Health hazard

Studies [James, 2013] carried out by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the
US have demonstrated the various detrimental effects to the health of workers and pedestrians

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passing by in close contact with welding activities such as metal fume fever, lung cancer, asthma,
fibrosis, respiratory infection, eye protection and flash burns, etc. So, less welding on site will be
beneficial to health of workers as welding in shop could be done by automatic welding arms or
robots.

8.4 Health & Safety Risk

In terms of risks in construction, bolting works face no risk to the followings: (a) fire and explosion
hazards, (b) electrical shocks, (c) respiratory and eye-sight hazards. As a result, the use of bolt
connections instead of weld connections in the structural design ought to be promoted from the
perspective of the health and the safety of construction workers and the public.

Figure 24 Health & Safety risks of on-site welding for hoarding

8.5 Reusability

Steel frames of semi-rigid joints are also more sustainable to the environment as the system could be
easily disassembled and recycled than the welded connections which require cutting by welders in a
more laborious manner, the sections could often be damaged in the demolition process and can no
longer be reused. The damage of members with opening for bolts during re-use is minimal when
compared with welded assembly.

9 Roadmap for market introduction and adoption

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This reports outlines the advantages and needs of finite rigidity in beam-to-column joints for the
design of typical steel hoarding structures and hoarding for the ultimate and serviceability limit
states. The failure load and the deflection of portal frames with joints of various rigidities are
investigated in this report. The finding of this report provides justification to the potential benefits of
semi-rigid joint design as a safer and more cost-effective approach to traditional fully rigid joint
design for hoarding and probably other steel structures. The use of semi-rigid bolted joints in this
report give a practical example for the feasibility of semi-rigid joints in reducing labour cost and
fabrication time and in maintaining a high safety standard simultaneously. As no joints are perfectly
pinned nor rigid but they are all semi-rigid, there is no reason why we do not make use of this
characteristic for safer and more economical design. Engineers ignore it because of difficulty in
quantifying the stiffness of semi-rigid joint and to do a semi-rigid design which are solved in this
project. The cost saving is significant, up to some 20% in total. For sustainability design, bolted
structures like semi-rigid bolted hoarding could adopt re-used steels.

The product of semi-rigid bolted hoarding will be promoted for more use in Hong Kong so the
hoarding could be manufactured in factory in mainland China for time and cost reduction as well as
other hazardous considerations adherent to street welding. As construction speed is a critical issue
for building more houses for people in Hong Kong, the concept of semi-rigid bolting joints can be
expanded to use not only in hoarding, but also in steel buildings in future and this is the next
upcoming goal of the inventor and his employer in helping Hong Kong to construct more buildings
faster and more economically with less use of labors, especially welders which are in serious
shortage in Hong Kong to date. Obviously the pre-fabricated bolted structures are created under a
more pleasant and quality fabrication process in air-conditioned factories than concreting or welding
in construction site in a hot, sunny and humid climate as in most months in a year in Hong Kong.

10 Ongoing developments

10.1 Traceability of used steel components

On the first quarter of 2018, Fuji Xerox would complete its research and development project
regarding laser tagging technology of structural steel component on behalf of Wolee Steel Co Ltd.
With this technology, mill certificate and Certified green material label associated with each batch of
structural steel as well as the component types can be traced, which allows greater quality
management system for reusable steel components for our hoarding system.

Figure 14 Ongoing R&D project of Xerox

Figure 15

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10.2 Cold-formed steel plate for modular deck unit

With the experience we gained from the two completed project utilizing our current version of
hoarding system. An improved version of our hoarding system emphasis the ergonomics of
interlocking modules created with simpler one-stage fabrication process by cold forming steel plates
of certain thickness into ridged plates. This development can eliminates the off-site welding of the
prefabricated deck unit by a great amount.

The process from our development :

1. our system allows us to adopt any liquid as counter weight in our patent. We have
considered the use of sand compacted by injecting water and also precast cement cylinder
blocks to be inserted into column hollow sections as shown below:

Figure 26 Construction stage 1

2. The hoarding deck is arranged as prefabricated module to be erected on-site quickly:

Figure 27 Construction stage 2

3. Prefabricated horizontal cover is to be slided into the ridged slot provided by the deck
module:

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 Figure 28 Construction stage 3

With cold form fabrication method, the purlins and the steel plated deck for the hoarding can be
combined as shown in figure 7 & 8.

Figure 29 prefabricated roof cover module

Figure 30 prefabricated side panel

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The fabrication process for the column is relatively complicated. It is height-adjustable according to
site conditions and can be reused after the compacted sand counterweight is removed.

10 References

BSEN 1993-1-8 (2005), Design of joints, British Standard Institute.

BSEN 10034 (1993), Structural steel I and H sections Tolerances on shape and dimensions.

Chan et al., Semi-rigid joint design of steel portal frames , proceedings of annual seminar of Joint
Structural Division of HKIE and Instruction of Structural Engineers U.K., 23 February 2017, pp.45-66.

Chen, W.F., Goto Y.and Liew Jyr.(1996).Stability design of semi-rigid frams, John Wiley &
Sons,Inc,.New York.

Code of Practice for the Structural Use of Steel 2011, Building Department, Hong Kong SAR
Government.

EN 1993-1-8 (1993, Design of joints.

James M. A. (2013), Health Effects of Welding, Health Effects Laboratory Division, National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health, USA.

Load and resistance factor design (2016), specification for structural steel buildings, Chicago, IL.

Steel Industry Guidance Note (2010), Preload bolt assemblies, joint publication by SCI, Corus and
BCSA

Yang, Y.B. and H.T. Chiou (1987), Rigid body motion test for nonlinear analysis with beam elements.
Journal of engineering mechanics, 113(9): p. 1404-1419.

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