The need for more sustainable solutions is acute, because construction causes 30% of all CO2 emissions. Combining concrete and Kerto LVL, the hybrid sandwich wall elements offer an easy way to replace typical concrete sandwich elements, the popular wall element in residential multi-storey buildings in Nordic countries.
Most importantly, the innovation guarantees efficient construction.
The starting point for the new element design was a common residential seven-storey building with a concrete structure including hollow-core slabs and party walls made from concrete as well.
In the hybrid sandwich wall panel, the load-bearing core panel is replaced by a Kerto LVL Q-panel. Otherwise, the structure of the element remains the same; the façade is made from concrete and the element has an insulation layer.
As a material used in prefabricated wall elements, Kerto LVL is very comparable with concrete. The compressive strength of the Kerto LVL panel is as high as that of C30 concrete, 26 MPa. Also, the tensile strength of the panel is at the same level, whereas in concrete it is 10% of the compressive strength without steel reinforcement. In a hybrid sandwich element, the reinforcement is needed only in the façade. As Kerto LVL is a light material, the hybrid sandwich wall elements will be faster to produce at the factory and transport to the site, and even the transport emissions will decrease due to the light load. The lighter elements are also easier to lift.
New easy-to-produce construction solutions are needed to turn the industry in a more sustainable direction.
Around 1 million square meters of concrete wall elements are produced annually in Finland. Their load-bearing core creates 45,000 tons of CO2 emissions. If all concrete walls were replaced with hybrid sandwich wall elements, CO2 emissions would decrease by 30,000 tons a year and 95,000 tons of carbon would be stored.
