Sayed, Ahmed Yehia Abdel Aziz El (2025) Design of novel formwork system and development of numerical model for comparison between formwork systems. PhD thesis, The American University in Cairo, Egypt.
Abstract
The formwork industry has witnessed major breakthroughs in the last decades and transformed from using wood to using steel, aluminum, and plastics to manufacture the different types of formwork systems. However, these breakthroughs required the use of a huge amount of materials leading to negative environmental impacts. In addition, the commercially available formwork systems have a very big number of accessories and requires the extensive use of high number of units to cover the areas to be poured. There was an attempt to target all these disadvantages by introducing the Funicular Arched Steel Truss (FAST) system. However, this system had its own drawbacks, and this is why the researcher introduced an upgraded and extendable version named the "Extendable Funicular Arched Steel Truss (EAST) system."The EAST system is developed to address all the drawback of the FAST system. To reach the final version of the EAST, the researcher carried out structural analysis of the EAST design and tested the said design in the lab to understand its structural behavior. While both systems represents a possible alternative of the commercially available systems, the EAST system has proved its feasibility to fill in such role due to its structural soundness and its low cost which makes it a feasible alternative for the commercially available systems. The EAST system can support loads up to 7 tons while satisfying the deflection and strength criteria. In addition, the EAST system is extendable and can support different spans and different height which gives it more flexibility in the site. Moreover, the system allows for movement beneath it in both directions on contrary to the FAST system which allows for free movement in one direction and other commercially available system which can hinder movement paths in the site.Further, the developed numerical model allows the user to design five types of formwork systems: traditional system, MULTIFLEX system, frames system, FAST and EAST systems. The numerical model was validated and verified using a villa floor plan and proved their reliability in designing the five formwork systems and in carrying out the quantity take-off to allow the user to calculate the cost and weight of each formwork system in different floor plans with different degrees of irregularity. The results showed that the EAST system provides an advantage regarding cost and weight compared to other system with a possibility of increasing this advantage by utilizing the extension feature of the system.Two-way ANOVA was carried out and proved that the cost and weight of the formwork system is significantly impacted by the formwork type and the area of the floor plan used upon the fixation of the shape of the floor plan.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Darwish, Mohamed; Nassar, Khaled; Ezeldin, Ahmed Samer; Abotaleb, Ibrahim and Elhusseiny, Ossama |
| Index terms: | wood, numerical model, plastic, formwork, low cost, environmental impact, structural analysis, take-off, movement |
| Subjects: | materials science, environmental impact, health behaviours and lifestyles, bidding, structural engineering, building construction, modelling and simulation, quantity surveying, traditional and composite building materials |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Construction Materials, Cost Management, Construction Technology, Engineering Principles, Procurement, Sustainability |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here