‘Thin shell’ floors could cut carbon in construction

News

UK researchers have created a new vaulted style of floor that could cut concrete usage and help reduce the construction industry’s carbon footprint.

construction
Dr Paul Shepherd of Bath University stands on the ACORN project’s thin-shell concrete floor

The ‘thin shell’ vaulted floor was developed by a team of structural engineers, mathematicians and manufacturing experts at the Universities of Bath, Cambridge and Dundee. Compared with a traditional flat slab floor, the innovation is said to use 75 per cent less concrete and 60 per cent less carbon in its construction.

The curved vault-shaped structure is covered by standard raised floor panels to create a level surface. Created by the UKRI-funded ACORN (Automating Concrete Construction) research project, the vault-shaped floor design takes advantage of concrete’s ‘inherent natural properties and strengths’, the team said.

Dr Paul Shepherd, principal investigator for ACORN and a reader in Bath University’s Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, said: “Achieving the net-zero targets recently ratified at the COP26 conference will require significant change by the construction industry, which is responsible for about half of the UK’s total emissions.

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