Experimental verification of the load-bearing capacity of a multilevel car park in Bremerhaven

An increasing proportion of construction work involves the maintenance and refurbishment of existing buildings whose load-bearing capacity cannot be established by analytical methods

An increasing proportion of construction work involves the maintenance and refurbishment of existing buildings whose load-bearing capacity cannot be established by analytical methods. In some cases, load-bearing capacity can be determined experimentally without damaging the structure of the building. Suitable procedures and equipment are available for this purpose.

The following account describes the procedure and equipment used to verify the load-bearing capacity of a five-storey car park with an overall surface area of 100,000m² (1,076,000 ft²). In contrast to the computational method, experimental results reveal substantial surplus load-bearing capacity in the existing structure.