Why are steel and concrete more commonly used in warehouse designs rather than wood?

Steel-concrete composite structure refers to a structure formed by welding (or cold-pressing) section steel or steel plate to form a steel section, and then connected by externally or internally concrete or connectors so that the section steel and concrete could form a joint force. It is commonly known as steel and concrete composite structures.

Compared with wood, the steel-concrete composite structure possesses the following advantages:

The steel-concrete composite structure is a new type of steel structure composed of two materials with different properties: steel and concrete. It is a reasonable combination of steel and concrete, which gives full play to the advantages of high tensile strength and good plasticity of steel, and great compressive performance of concrete.

Steel-concrete composite structures are used for floor beams, trusses, slabs, and columns in multistory and high-rise buildings, roof slabs, beams, and trusses in roof structures, columns and working platform beams, slabs and bridges in factory buildings, and crane beams in steel workshop buildings. Steel and concrete composite structures can be divided into four categories: composite beams, composite slabs, composite trusses, and composite columns.

The steel-concrete composite structure possesses the advantages of high load-bearing capacity and rigidity and a small cross-sectional area. The three materials of steel-concrete structure, steel rib, steel skeleton, and concrete work together. The steel and concrete bear the load directly. Because the concrete increases the stiffness of the component's section and prevents the local buckling of the steel, the bearing capacity of the steel is improved. In addition, the strength of the concrete in the core area surrounded by the steel skeleton can be improved as the function of restraint caused by steel skeleton, that is, the material strength of both steel and concrete has been fully exerted so that the bearing capacity of the components is greatly improved.

Compared with wood structure, steel-concrete composite structure’s seismic performance is pretty good. As the steel-concrete structure is not limited by steel content, its bearing capacity is more than twice that of reinforced concrete structure with the same section. Due to the existence of the steel skeleton, the steel-reinforced concrete structure has greater ductility and deformation capacity, and shows good seismic performance.

Compared with wood structure building, the amount of steel used in the steel-concrete structure is greatly reduced. Generally, it can save about 50% of steel material and reduce the cost by 10%-40% under the condition of equivalent load bearing. Compared with reinforced concrete structure, about 60% concrete can be saved, the cross-sectional size of the components will be reduced, the use area and floor height will be increased, which avoids the formation of heavy beams and columns, and reduces the foundation load and cost, so it has considerable economic benefits.

The construction speed is fast and the construction period is short. The steel skeleton of the steel-concrete structure has formed a steel structure before the concrete is poured. It has a large bearing capacity and can bear the weight of the component and the live load during construction. It is unnecessary to set up pillars for the template because the template can be suspended on the steel structure. In multi-layer or high buildings, the upper-level construction can be continued without waiting for the concrete to reach a certain strength, which speeds up the construction speed and shortens the construction period.

Good fire resistance and corrosion resistance. It is well known that wood structures have poor fire resistance and corrosion resistance. However, for steel-concrete structures, due to the presence of outsourcing concrete, the fire and corrosion resistance of components could be improved a lot.

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