Industrial Building for the Stoning of Fertilizers

Abstract

This industrial building has been recently built at Puntarenas, in Costa Rica. It has been called «Bag Storage Building», and has 9,800 ms² ground area. Owing to the location of the building near the sea, and the consequent corrosive action of the humid air; the danger of earthquakes; and the economic advantages of adopting prefabrication techniques, it has been designed to use prefabricated units, which would be made at the building site itself. The main structural feature of this project is a number of trusses, which are spaced at 6.1 ms intervals. Each of them consists of three prefabricated concrete parts. The central part is Y shaped in section, and the two lateral ones are in the shape of an inverted L. The depth of the trusses is 90 cms at the springers and 30 cms at the crown. The lateral parts have been prestressed by means of 4, «Loeba» type, cables, each made up of 12 wires of 5.4 mms diam each. These trusses overhang 7.30 ms over the central part of the north side of the building, in order to provide a roof for the railway track and the loading platform. The building roof is made with corrugated asbestos cement sheeting, 6 mm in thickness, resting on I shaped 30 cm deep prestressed joists. The erection of the trusses was accomplished with the aid of provisional metallic scaffolding, on which the working platforms were placed.