Dublin Waste to Energy

For example, the rounded corner feature of the building presented particular challenges and we were asked to prepare our recommendations on how this could be achieved as well as a sample mock-up for inspection by the clients and their consultants. Finally, the trapezium was the shape adopted to achieve the large rounded corners. The trapezium panels diminish in size from bottom to top and segment around the corner to achieve the desired effect.

Other challenges included the west elevation of the building where the wall is at a 13° pitch from vertical and also at a 97.5° angle from horizontal. This meant that the square ends of the panel would not meet the I-beam supports. The solution here was to cut the ends of the panels with a small diagonal cut, resulting in each panel on the west elevation cut in the shape of a parallelogram.

The panels are fully compliant with the Europe-wide Construction Products Regulations, which came into force in July 2013. They are Factory Mutual approved: achieving the FM 4881 standard for use externally and the FM 4880 standard for use internally.

Paroc panels are the first light-weight sandwich panels in the world achieving the FM 4881 standard for use externally in single span structures reaching the span of 6.1 metres without any secondary steel supports.

“High quality, strength and fire safety of PAROC panels are the well-known benefits on the market already”, Export Manager Tom Österlund states. “By optimizing the need of support structures for the panels, the total construction costs will decrease. For instance, according to calculations savings can be more than 30 €/m² with span of 6 metres compared to panel solutions needing supports at 2 metres.”

The panel is also used internally to construct the internal firewalls and smokescreen partitions. Because of the complexity of the plant within the building, it was necessary that the plant would be installed before the external cladding. This also applied to the up to 50 m high the internal firewalls and smokescreen partitions designed to meet external loads until such time as the external walls are installed and the internal walls only then exposed to internal loads.

The value of the panel order and the accessories was approximately EUR 2 million, and the plant will be operational in 2017. It will provide electricity for 80,000 homes and district heating for upwards of 50,000 homes out of 600 000 tons of waste.