- 29 May 2007 -
Building project employs FRP dome forms

FIBRE REINFORCED plastic (FRP) dome forms are being used in the construction of a US$80 million nanotechnology centre at Georgia Tech’s Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The Marcus Nanotechnology Building (NRCB) broke ground in August 2006 and is scheduled for completion in summer 2008.

The FRP forms will be used to build a waffle slab deck design for cleanroom facilities at the NRCB, which is comprised of two separate areas split by an expansion joint; a five storey lab/office area and a 30,000 ft² tri-level design cleanroom. The waffle slab design was specified by the project’s architectural firm, M & W Zander, to optimise airflow and utility (gas and water) exhaust services throughout the flooring system. The provision of cleanroom filtering by pushing air through the building with uniform velocity and minimum turbulence was the end result of the design. The dome configuration was also specified very deep to ensure the slab’s load per square foot strength to support the cleanrooms’ end-use equipment load requirements.

The project’s concrete trade contractor, United Forming of Austell, Georgia, was appointed by general contractor, The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, based in Baltimore, Maryland, to source the formwork for the waffle slab. In turn, United Forming awarded the bid to Molded Fiber Glass Construction Products (MFG) of Independence, Kansas, having ruled out wood and steel options. MFG manufactured a complete range of custom one-piece FRP forms which it claims could provide a stronger, flexible design to meet the unique configurations, reduce labour and could be re-used on future projects.

“The domes’ custom design focus was the depth of the forms; they had to be very deep and narrow for the size of void required for the floor,” comments MFG engineering manager Eric Brace. “We produced three, rectangular shaped sizes of forms ranging from 44” deep x 18” wide x 38” long and smaller.”

“Because there would be a lot of contact surface the stripping would normally be difficult, however these forms wouldn’t have that problem due to the physical properties of the FRP material combined with a chemically active release agent called NoxCrete™ PCE,” Brace adds.

The MFG dome forms were required for six floors of slab. Concrete dome pours will be finished 2” below the top, creating multiple voids in the slab once the forms are removed.

M & W Zander; www.mw-zander.com
United Forming; www.unitedforming.com
Whiting-Turner Contracting Company; www.whiting-turner.com
Molder Fiber Glass Construction Products; www.mfgcp.com

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