Renovation
Roofing panels for a clinker silo in Joppa (United States)
Three new clinker silos were built to upgrade the Joppa cement manufacturing facility in Illinois, USA.
Two of the silos had conventional steel roofing, whereas the third was completed with Ductal®. For this innovative roof, 24 precast panels, measuring 7.2 m long, 2.4 m wide and only 1.5 cm thick were assembled.
Highly innovative design was applied in the silo roof, and the erection of the Ductal® roof took (11 days) compared to the steel roof of 35 days+.
In addition, Ductal® provided excellent durability and impermeability, resistance to corrosion, abrasion and impact, reduced maintenance and longer life.
Reinforcement of the clinker silo at the Lafarge plant in La Couronne (Charente)
Due to the development of cracks which reduced the load capacity by half and thus restricted its storage capacity, one of the reinforced concrete clinker silos in la Couronne (Charente) required renovation.
For this purpose, 216 stanchions and 384 trussed panels, made in varying thicknesses with Ductal®, connected by steel cable, were installed on the silo walls.
Ductal® was selected for its ability to meet the demands for abrasion resistance, and to solve the constraints of light weight and durability in an extremely harsh environment, where the clinker temperature can reach 400 degrees, with a 200 degree temperature difference on either side of the walls.
Girders and trusses for the Cattenom electrical plant
EDF was looking for a building material that was lightweight and highly resistant to the aggressive physical-chemical atmosphere (run-off water, alternating freeze-thaw cycles).
The project included beams and girders for the support building of the heat exchange structure. Ductal® was selected for strength, durability, low maintenance, and for its unrivalled mechanical capabilities.
The use of Ductal® reduced the structural weight on the foundations by a factor of three, thus providing for increased structure lifetime.
In total, more than 2 400 prestressed girders and beams, (20 per day) were made with Ductal®.
Queen Sofia Museum in Madrid
Upgrading of the Queen Sofia Museum in Madrid, Spain required the construction of three new buildings with a load-bearing structure of 24 steel columns, 16 meters high and 32 cm outside diameter.
These load-bearing columns are reinforced with concrete cast inside the column.This project was the first use of Ductal®, cast-in-place on the jobsite.
Ductal® added compressive and flexural strength, ensuring the stability of the load-carrying capacity of the column. The entire column was filled in one casting.
A Ductal® fire resistant formula was used to provide high fire-resistance to the structure’s other capabilities.
Flooring at the Félix Landreau school in Angers
The Felix Landreau middle school in Angers (Maine-et-Loire), built in the 1970’s, had just undergone a complete overhaul when corrosion was discovered in the concrete floor.
The main girders were able to remain in place, but the cross-beams had to be replaced without touching the superstructure.
One thousand cross-beams, each weighing approximately 30 kg with the ability to be manually placed were useful to reinforce the flooring and avoid any future risk of corrosion.
Ductal®, which is classified ‘MO’ – not combustible - was selected to meet the highly demanding requirements for fire protection.
