Avoiding failures during building construction using structural fuses as load limiters on temporary shoring structures

[EN] The risk of structural failure of buildings can be significant during construction. Temporary adjustable telescopic steel shores or props are commonly used in building construction. The failure of shores is sudden and therefore structural fuses as load limiters (LL) can be introduced to provide ductility in the temporary member for a specified limit failure load. Previous work by the authors showed that the design of shoring systems can be improved using LL for standard cases of imposed loads applied during construction. This paper extends this work to cases of accidental loading where the shoring system-permanent structure interaction is less known. The main principles of LLs are discussed and implemented in advanced numerical simulations of a real case RC building during construction by means of explicit nonlinear dynamic finite element analyses. Different local failure scenarios were investigated corresponding to cases observed in practice. The comparison of the numerical results obtained with and without LLs demonstrated for the first time the benefits of using LLs in terms of: (a) mitigating the risk of failure of the temporary structure; and (b) reducing permanent damage (cracking and short-term deflections in the slab) affecting the durability and functionality of the building.The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport for funding received under: (a) the FPU Program [FPU13/02466] and complementary funding received for a stay at the University of Surrey (UK), and (b) the Mobility Program (Salvador de Madariaga 2017) of the Promotion of Talent and Employability within the state s Research & Innovation Program 2013 2016 [PRX17/00302]. The authors would also like to thank the Generalitat Valenciana (Spain) for funding received [GV/2015/063], Dr. P. Olmati, who developed the preliminary FE model of the structure at the operational stage as part of a project sponsored by the EPSRC (UK) Impact Acceleration Account held by the University of Surrey [Grant Ref: EP/K503939] linked to a previous project funded by the EPSRC [Grant Ref: EP/K008153/1], and Dr. J. Asensi for providing the photograph included in Fig. 1.Buitrago, M.; Sagaseta, J.; Adam, JM. (2020). Avoiding failures during building construction using structural fuses as load limiters on temporary shoring structures. Engineering Structures. 204:1-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2019.109906S11620