An AISC-sponsored research project focused on speed has secured a grant to support its next steps.
The Charles Pankow Foundation awarded a $400,000 grant to the FastFloor research project, a modular floor framing and diaphragm system for commercial building structures. FastFloor is a primary steel panelized system that’s fabricated mostly offsite and can be erected 30% to 50% faster than a traditional concrete-on-metal-deck floor system. It was launched as part of AISC’s 2019 Need for Speed initiative, which aimed to design and construct steel buildings 50% faster by 2025 (a goal the industry achieved ahead of schedule!).
Phase 1 of the FastFloor project investigated the design’s viability using computational simulation and experimental testing. Phase 2 conducted a wide range of prototype structural analyses, including gravity loading, vibration and acoustics tests, and assessment of the new flooring’s interaction with the rest of a building’s structural systems. Those phases were completed in late 2024, supported by an earlier Pankow Foundation grant.
Phase 3 will continue FastFloor’s development to include archetype structural design, archetype structure analysis, vibration and acoustic tests, gravity strength assessment, and in-plane diaphragm strength assessment.
AISC is supporting and sponsoring the project, along with the Magnusson Klemencic Associates Foundation, Herrick Steel, and AISC full members Nucor, Schuff Steel, Cives Steel, Atlas Tube, and Metals Fab.
The project’s principal investigators are Jerome F. Hajjar, PE, PhD (Northeastern University); Benjamin W. Schafer, PE, PhD (Johns Hopkins University); Matthew Eatherton, SE, PE, PhD (Virginia Tech); Onur Avci, PE, PhD (West Virginia University); and W. Samuel Easterling, PE, PhD (Iowa State University).