Vulcraft Composite Deck
Vulcraft Composite Deck
(OP)
I recently received a Vulcraft deck catalog and noticed that the allowable super imposed Live Load listed for their deck are a lot lower than some of the other catalogs that I have.
For instance: 3" 20 gage deck, 6.25" LW slab for a 12'-0" clear span:
Vulcraft: 80psf
USD: 185psf 1 stud per foot
115psf no studs
The USD manual that i have is older and actually has 33 ksi steel while the Vulcraft is using 50, and to top it off the unshored spans for Vulcraft are actually higher than those for USD.
Has anybody ever noticed this?
For instance: 3" 20 gage deck, 6.25" LW slab for a 12'-0" clear span:
Vulcraft: 80psf
USD: 185psf 1 stud per foot
115psf no studs
The USD manual that i have is older and actually has 33 ksi steel while the Vulcraft is using 50, and to top it off the unshored spans for Vulcraft are actually higher than those for USD.
Has anybody ever noticed this?






RE: Vulcraft Composite Deck
RE: Vulcraft Composite Deck
RE: Vulcraft Composite Deck
Hard to understand why they would not emboss their deck to get full capacity.
They do provide the standard strength determination equations in their manual, but they do not appear to have any information on how to reduce the capacity for their bonding. They also do not provide Sc or phi Mno for verifying their values.
I have always put minimum required deck properties on my drawings, I, S, gage, etc, and expected to get a deck that works. I have never thought to exclude a deck manufacturer.
RE: Vulcraft Composite Deck
A lot of the engineers I work with now from many different backgrounds, do it the exactly same way. I guess the word got out. Maybe the problem you're seeing is a symptom of the bigger issue. If different manufacturers of a commodity, like metal deck, have vastly different capacities there's something wrong.
RE: Vulcraft Composite Deck
We were developing a phi factor for the use of LRFD with these decks and wavered between 0.9 and 0.85 because the failure wasn't always sudden (like concrete shear failure) and the variability was low.
But ya gotta do what you deem appropriate.