COMPARISON OF CONVENTIONAL PARTIONING SYSTEM WITH LIGHT GAUGE STEEL PARTIONING IN MULTI-STOREY BUILDINGS

Abstract

The population is growing so fast that the world's population will jump from 6.5 billion to around 9 billion over the next 50 years. The resources of the earth are depleting very fast. It is ultimate need of the time to change our living style in a way that helps conserve the earth’s resources for our future generations and so sustainability becomes a very important factor in every field and hence in the construction industry. It is ultimate need that a sustainable construction material should be used. Light Gauge Steel (LGS) is an alternative sustainable construction material the use of which is extensively increasing in USA and Europe. But in Pakistan it is still an emerging technology due to reluctance of the construction industry in adopting it due to many reasons including higher perceived costs, lack of expertise etc. This material is not only recyclable but also has a better lifecycle performance e.g. earthquake performance due to reduction in dead loads, reduced heat conduction and stiffness due to EPS Light Weight Concrete used in the partition walls etc. This study shows the comparison of the conventional partitioning systems in Pakistan with the LGS partitioning system in multi-Storey concrete framed building. The study shows how different types of partitioning systems (conventional i.e. brick and block and LGS) affect the structural design of the framed buildings. This study is based on a building, the real time construction of which has been started in Jhelum, Pakistan and whish is designed by an Islamabad based firm named Civil and Structural Services. The design of actual building is based on brick partitioning. The comparison includes the quantities of concrete, reinforcement and cost of different types of partitioning. The labour cost is assumed to be uniform however actually it is not the case and LGS technology incurs higher labour costs. The results show a large reduction in the intensities of dead loads when using LGS partitioning as compared to conventional partitioning system used in Pakistan. Due to which a large amount of money can be saved in terms of concrete and reinforcement quantities. Moreover, itself partitioning cost of LGS is lower than brick partitioning and block masonry partitioning. Also the money can be saved in terms of heating and air conditioning costs and the costs of acoustic insulation as LGS partitions have a lower coefficient of conduction for heat and sound.