Technology

Factory-Ready, Rapid-Assembly Construction System

GIS has developed and introduced a factory-ready, rapid-assembly construction system known as BSS.GIS, which facilitates construction in short timescales and with minimal effort. The structures in the BSS.GIS series are designed for the construction of social-cultural-leisure and residential sites in different climatic zones, including the Far North and regions with high seismicity, up to 9 points on the Richter scale. These structures have a number of advantages over traditional designs, including:

1. Flexible layout
2. Accelerated building assembly
3. Non-labor intensive
4. No "wet" processes to affect the structural rigidity of the building during assembly
5. Low specific weight of the design

The assembled elements of the building are made of reinforced concrete. Building assembly is undertaken in sections, where each section is comprised of two external bi-modular wall panels which join together with rigid frame joints at the floor or ceiling panels. Buildings are from 6.0m to 15m wide with a 3.0m step, and they are 4 stories high. Designs are currently under development for 6-, 8- and 10-story buildings. Single-story buildings can be 3.3m, 4.8m and 6.55m high. The BSS.GIS designs have no standardized length and the maximum width of a single-bay industrial construction is 12m, with possible blocking of additional bays.

The industrial buildings' own support structures enable the installation of hoist mechanisms of up to 5 tons. Where it is necessary to equip these buildings with mechanisms of a higher carrying capacity, additional supporting devices can be mounted.

The external wall panel fascias are detailed with patterned border-relief elements, giving the facades an original architectural appearance. Where necessary, the facade elements of the panels can be painted or faced with different, traditional (facing bricks) or the latest finishing materials, using contemporary technologies.

BSS.GIS designs correspond with new heat engineering requirements, they meet level II fire resistance, and they are certified by Gosstroy of Russia (№ РОСС RU. СР48.С00094, № 0169405). Fire resistance could easily be raised to level I, when glassfoam heat insulation is applied.

BSS.GIS designs have proved themselves especially in the building of camp settlements for construction workers and operatives in the oil and gas sector. Many sites have now been built under GIS projects.

Illustrations / Descriptions of Structural Components

In accordance with the decision of All-Russian Research Institute for Fire Protection of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (VNIIPO), support structures must have a 2-hour fire resistance, corresponding with level II under State Standard (SNIP) 21-01-97.

The main component of the buildings is a reinforced concrete three-layered panel (see Fig.1), 3m wide and 6.55m high for two-story buildings, and 3.3m wide and 4.8m high for single-story buildings, with bearing edges. Polystyrene (1) is used as heat insulation, with thermal conductivity of l = 0.04W/m °С and with a thickness of 150 to 200mm, dependent upon the climatic region. The external 30-mm thick coating layer is made of reinforced high-density concrete (2).

At the edges of the panel, the polystyrene is protected from inflaming by a mineral wool cord (3) and cement-sand mix or cement-shaving slabs (4); the packing of vertical joints between panels has a high quality hermetic seal, thanks to the installation of packing bundles made from Vilatherm (5), foamed polyurethane (7) and the bolted coupling (6) of panels during assembly.

Panels are made of reinforced concrete ribbed plates; the design of their hydro-thermal insulation and reinforcement depends on the load and the intended use. Floor slabs (8) are inserted from one side into the wedge-like grooves of the wall panels (9) using two skew corbels, in the base of which there is a metal "knife" part (10). A design of this kind ensures a high degree of reliability of the connections (Fig.2).