ISEC 09


ON THE USE OF EXPERIMENTAL TESTING IN RC BUILDING STRUCTURES UNDER CONSTRUCTION

MANUEL BUITRAGO, JOSE M. ADAM, PEDRO A. CALDERÓN, JUAN J. MORAGUES


Abstract

The current methods of building reinforced concrete (RC) structures have their origins in the first half of the 20th century. In the early stages, not a great deal of attention was paid to their behaviour under construction and not a lot was known about how loads were transmitted between shores and slabs. This meant that in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, there arose an interest in finding out how building structures behaved in the construction stage, and led to a large number of numerical and experimental studies being carried out. This paper gives a chronological account of the different experimental studies on the construction of RC building structures, together with a detailed research history of ICITECH, which in recent years has been a leader in this field, especially in the use of clearing (partial striking). This compilation of all the experimental studies sets out the objectives of each one, the results obtained, the advances achieved, and how each of them has contributed to the scientific community’s present level of knowledge on the behavior of buildings under construction. Another objective of this paper is to make readers aware of the advances that have made it possible for this knowledge to be effectively applied to the construction of new buildings.

Full Text (PDF)