The Geilinger-Stütze® is a high-load-bearing composite column that outperforms any other product in terms of load capacity, slenderness and fire resistance.
The Geilinger-Stütze® is the original technically approved design that sets the gold standard.
Geilinger-Stütze® can be used to good effect in buildings that are horizontally stabilised by means of concrete cores, shear walls, etc. so that they transfer mainly vertical loads. The columns can however also resist bending moments arising from impact loads or slab rotation at edge columns, for example.
When performing the design calculations for the columns, spannverbund takes into account interactions between the steel core, concrete fill and steel casing under fire exposure as well as at room temperature.
The slender Geilinger-Stütze® works extremely well in combination with the Europilz®, which solves punching problems irrespective of the column dimensions.
Use our online pre-dimensioning tool to conduct a preliminary calculation for centrally loaded columns. For columns with bending moments and other geometric constraints, please contact our Technical Department.
Our Geilinger-Stütze® offer the following benefits:
FOR CLIENTS
FOR ARCHITECTS
FOR STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS
FOR BUILDING CONTRACTORS
FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
Once filled with concrete, the Geilinger-Stütze® functions as a composite column. The column load is optimally shared by all three components – the steel casing, the concrete and the steel core. In the event of fire, the outer steel casing prevents spalling of the concrete layers, thereby preventing severe heat penetration. The steel core as the main load-bearing element lies furthest from the fire and is optimally protected by the surrounding ring of concrete. This ensures high load capacities even in the event of fire.
The Geilinger-Stütze® offers elegant, fireproof slenderness for high loads. This slenderness is achieved by replacing low-strength material (cheap concrete) with high-strength material (expensive steel). Although this makes the columns more expensive than reinforced concrete columns, they are a popular choice for applications where slenderness is key.
For example, buildings with high aesthetic standards where slender columns with a sleek steel surface convey the sought-after sense of prestige, strength and grace. But there are also applications where the slenderness virtually pays for itself; where the main priority is to gain usable space, expensive slender columns offer a very rapid return on investment (ROI), see ROI example.
The main areas of application for Geilinger-Stütze® are buildings or areas of buildings with medium to high loads where slenderness or rapid construction progress are required, or aesthetic standards must be met, especially:
It is assumed that the buildings are horizontally stabilised with concrete cores, shear walls or wind braces so that the columns mainly have to transfer normal forces.
In multi-storey buildings, it is possible to adapt the external dimensions of the columns to the loads. Alternatively, by varying the inner steel cores, it is also possible to accommodate different load or buckling length ranges without changing the external dimensions.
The Geilinger-Stütze® is calculated in accordance with our SCI Assessment and our German technical approval Z-26.3-60 based on Eurocode 4 (EN 1994-1-1 and EN 1994-1-2). Design resistance under ambient temperature is determined using a precise, non-linear calculation method (general design method), which takes into account the residual stress and yield strength distribution within the steel core. The ISO standard fire curve is used to determine thermal actions in the event of fire. Design resistance in the event of fire is also determined using a precise, non-linear calculation method (general design method), which takes into account the temperature distribution in cross-section and the influence of thermal expansion (residual stresses in cross-section).
We supply the verifiable design calculations for Geilinger-Stütze® under ambient temperature and in the event of fire. The columns can be designed for a fire resistance rating of R30 to R180 (typically R90 in normal situations or R120 for high-rise buildings).
As studies have shown, it is not possible to assign a composite column with a solid core to a single European buckling curve as the residual stress distribution and yield strength distribution in the solid steel core have a major influence on the load-bearing capacity. Furthermore, the compactness and large plastic shape factor of the solid steel core mean that significant parts of the steel core often cannot plasticise at all, contrary to the assumptions of the simplified design method in accordance with Eurocode 4. For these reasons, solid core columns should be dimensioned using the general method in conjunction with a technical approval, rather than the simplified design method.
