Determination of load-bearing capacity on the roof arches of the Bremen Ratskeller

Substantial sections of the basement facilities of Bremen town hall are situated underneath public traffic areas.

Substantial sections of the basement facilities of Bremen town hall are situated underneath public traffic areas. In order to be able to allow occasional entry of this overlying pedestrian zone to fire-fighting and delivery vehicles, large parts of the basement vault were reinforced.
This was not possible in some sections due to the lack of available height and local conditions were not suitable for computerized safety calculations.

Therefore fail-safe loading equipment and modern on-line measurement techniques were used to experimentally determine the load-bearing capacity. The load was measured with a force transducer and the deformation of the arches with inductive displacement transducers. A multipoint measuring system, coupled to a computer, was used to process the transducer signals.