Browsing by Author "Oosthuysen, Christian"

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    Design of modified steel shipping containers for ambient and elevated temperatures
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-04) Oosthuysen, Christian; Walls, Richard Shaun; De Koker, Nico Pieter Jan; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Civil Engineering.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The use of shipping containers as basic building blocks for commercial and domestic buildings is fast becoming a popular method of construction. There are numerous reasons why shipping containers are gaining popularity while the biggest drivers are linked to cost, architectural freedom and time of construction. The primary goal of this thesis is to determine the structural resistance of load bearing elements in shipping container buildings at both ambient and elevated temperatures. The reduction in capacity of the main load bearing elements, namely the corner columns, were associated with the removal of the corrugated wall panels. An upper and lower bound capacity was determined for each corner column by considering the sheeting to be fully present and entirely absent respectively. The load bearing capacities for the back and front corner columns were 958 and 923 kN respectively for the upper bound capacity and were in good agreement with capacities determined previously according to experimental testing. A reduction in capacity of 20 and 34% occurred for the back and front corner columns for the lower bound scenario considered. Previous authors have shown that the corrugated sheeting provides significant lateral rigidity while the results from this thesis emphasise the significance of the corrugated sheeting with respect to the load bearing capacity of the main load bearing elements. The Euler buckling capacity of the shipping container side wall was found to be 317 kN due to a monolithic load applied to the top support beam. Inclusion of plasticity in the material definition led to failure of the top side beam. Even though these capacities are considered sufficient with regard to the design loads of many shipping container building configurations, a method of strengthening the side wall was proposed by increasing the stiffness of the surrounding members and adding stiffeners at the positions of expected bearing failure. The load bearing capacities of the corner columns reduced at an unprecedented rate when exposed to the ISO 834 standard fire curve for the unprotected case. The fitting of passive fire protection boards reduced the rate of capacity reduction considerably while even after a 2-hour standard fire exposure the corner columns were found to have considerable residual capacity. For 20 mm thick boards, the capacity of the back and front corner columns reduced by 24 and 13%. To ensure the reduced capacities of the corner columns are not exceeded it is important to prevent high thermally induced forces from occurring by permitting thermal expansion. Assuming the boards do not fail according to the integrity criteria and that thermal expansion is allowed for, the corner columns are considered to have adequate load bearing capacity to resist design loads typical for modular construction.