Towards the end of last year, members of the Inforce teamvisited the 3200m2 Ravensdown Fertil izer building inWhangarei, where back in 2012 we had worked with NaylorLove to design and deliver a f ibre reinforced slab. The team were very impressed with the condit ion of the slab;despite nearly 9 years of service, the slab was in ‘good shape’and described as ‘perfect ’ with very minimal surface cracking orjoint deterioration. Back in 2011, Inforce were approached to provide a f ibre designalternative for the building, with the prior slab design alreadyspecif ied with 2 layers of steel mesh reinforcing. The team werefaced with designing a slab that was subject to high wear,movement of bulk transport and the constant activity of aloader with sharp cutting edges on the bucket ‘scraping’ overthe slab.

01FEBRUARY2020

NEW STAFFiNFORCE is proud to welcomeAnneke Visagie to theWestport team, all the wayfrom Rustenburg, SouthAfrica. Anneke joins us as a CivilEngineering technician withmany years experience in theconsulting industry. As ourProjects and Design Lead,Anneke will be assist ing youwith project specif ications,drafting and education aroundfibre reinforced concrete.Welcome!

RAVENSDOWN WHANGAREI:

AND WHOKNEW..Thomas Edison ( inventor of thelightbulb) was an early expert inprecast concrete patents anddesigns Chinas Three-Gorges Dam is theworlds largest concrete structure Concrete is the most widely usedman-made material in the worldby volume, about 5 bill ion tonnesper annum

THIS ISSUERavensdown Whangarei

Lifecycle Design

Plastic Shrinkage Cracking

ENVI Awards

Products: Permaforce

Welcome Anneke

YOUR BI-MONTHLY FRC NEWS & TECHNICAL UPDATE FROM iNFORCE

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A FRC slab designed for hard wear and heavyloads, still perfect after 9 years of hard use.

Plastic shrinkage cracking is an unsightly andundesirable result of concrete finishes drying out toofast with surface water evaporating, or subsurfacemoisture not bleeding through fast enough. The drying concrete surface shrinks & cracks occur as tensilestresses develop in the curing surface layer. Hence why placerslove to do their thing early in mornings or late at night to helpmitigate this phenomenon. Engineers can help arrest the likelihood of plastic shrinkage byopting to add a fibre like Microforce®(our micro syntheticpolymer fibre) which can aid in arresting plastic shrinkage byproviding secondary reinforcement in the surface of the slab. If your project is likely to be in a dry environment, completedat a hot time of year or has a greater potential for plasticshrinkage - talk to us about specifying Microforce® and theadvantages it can provide for challenging projects.

PLASTIC SHRINKAGE CRACKING

Microforce®

The design team solution was to util ise our Permaforce 38mm steelf ibre in a high-fibre mix (more on Permaforce later in this issue), tocreate large unrestrained joint-less panels interconnected withdowelled steel joints, to mitigate saw-cuts.

Ravensdown Issues:High wear slab, loader bucket scraping repeatedly on slab surface,high impact areas, heavy traff ic, saw cut deterioration over t ime.

In the coming months ,Willem de Bod ourEngineering Manager,will be beginning a f ibrebeam testing programmeto help us betterunderstand how ourfibres perform.

After casting a series of

concrete beams with

different f ibre mixes, dosing

rates and concrete

strengths - Willem will

observe and gather data as

his creations are taken to

failure point by 3 point

hydraulic press at WSP

Opus in Well ington.

Using an accredited

independent laboratory

here in New Zealand, with

local materials, will give us

highly accurate design data

going forward. This will be

valuable for helping our

customers to create highly

accurate & economical

reinforcing solutions.

Get yourBEAM on

iNFORCE Solution:Remove the 2 layers of steelmesh and replace with a FRCmix only.A high f ibre concrete mix,creating large joint-less panelsto el iminate the saw cuts andmitigate the r isk of long termjoint deterioration and slabwear.Inclusion of f ibres in the slabcontribute to a stronger andmore durable concrete matrix.

THIS ISSUE

NEXT ISSUE:

Life cycle design and the topic ofsustainabil ity is having a marked impact onthe building and construction industry theworld over. More and more, consumers attention is beingdrawn to the impacts of their demands, andconsequently, design and engineering has toconsider and adapt to the levers of consumeropinion in order to stay relevant, offer desirablesolutions and to get projects across the l ine. But what does the concept of l i fecycle designactually mean? Our assessment is that thisconcept seeks to consider the entire impact ofmaterials or designs, from their inception to theirdemolit ion. When we plan a project, in order to considerl ifecycle design, we might be asking questionssuch as; What materials? How are they sourced?How will they contribute to energy consumptionover t ime? How will they be disposed of postdemolit ion? Are they of a high carbon footprint? When thinking about materials - itself but aniche element of the entire l i fecycle designthoughtspace -  and concrete in particular, thereis more than one way to look at its l i fecycle.Undeniable permanence around concretestructures usually means a vastly extended l ifethat requires less maintenance and materialinputs to ensure its performance.

LIFECYCLE DESIGN: THINKING MORE

SUSTAINABILITY WITH CONCRETE

Comparing concrete withother materials -may pose morequestions thananswers

PERMAFORCE® is a 38mm steelf ibre for concrete, recommendedfor industrial applications assuperior to mesh. Wire crimpedsteel f ibre is made of low-carbon cold drawn steel and hasa minimum tensile strength ofover 700Mpa. The f ibre containsdeformations that run the fulllength of the f ibre and give anincredible mechanical bond tothe concrete matrix. PERMAFORCE® fibre provides auniform distr ibution ofreinforcement throughout theconcrete that increases thetensile strength, impactresistance, shear strength, andductil ity of the concrete. Nosophisticated or expensiveequipment is required to achieveuniform, ball free distr ibution ofPERMAFORCE® fibre in theconcrete matrix. Contact iNFORCE for a freesample of PERMAFORCE® fibresent to your door.

PRODUCTFOCUS:PERMAFORCE

THIS ISSUE

Energy use over the longer l i fecycle, would usuallybe lower than for materials such as t imber or steel,which require more l i fecycle maintenance (painting,upkeep, replacement) and have a shorter l i fespan. This thinking is juxtaposed by the fact that t imberstarts l i fe with a head start in terms ofenvironmental fr iendliness - having been a netcontributor to a cleaner world, as trees. Comparedto concrete and steel, which take large energy inputsto develop and move about. But what of steel, with its (assuming it isn’t rustingaway) near inf inite recycl ing potential? There is plenty to consider around l ifecycle designand no clear cut answers or arguments, but whateverthe thinking - we can put forward solid and sensiblearguments for the inclusion of concrete in anydesigns that consider enhancing the l i fecycle of aproject.

Late 2019 saw the inaugural ENVIEngineering Awards take place atShed 10 on Auckland's waterfront. As a corporate sponsor, iNFORCE wasproud to watch a talented class ofEngineers be recognised for workacross categories such as YoungEngineers, Innovations, Leadership,Creativity, Partnerships, Diversity andImpact. Congratulations to all recipients andwe look forward to the 2020 event.

NEXT ISSUE:

Nido Retail, Henderson

Impact Resistance and FRC

Talking Seismic

BECA Presentation

Inforce Webinar Series

Product Focus: Radforce

www.inforce.co.nz - 0800 463 672 - info@inforce.co.nz

LIFECYCLE DESIGN: SUSTAINABILITY IN CONCRETE CONTINUEDENVI AWARDS2019

A project in concrete will require farless inputs over its (longer) life than

competing materials