Load limiters on shores: Design and experimental research

When constructing reinforced concrete building structures, shores are normally used to transmit the loads from freshly poured slabs to lower floors. However, certain problems are involved in this process, including: (a) the loads on the shores may be higher than expected, which can lead to the collapse of the shoring system or even of the whole structure, and (b) the limited range of shore types in commercial catalogues, which often means that the shores used are oversized. This paper describes the study carried out on the development of a new load-limiter (LL) that can be fitted to shores to improve safety and reduce the cost of constructing building structures. The study shows that combining mechanical and civil engineering fields made it possible to produce a novel device that could revolutionise the shoring techniques at present in use. The method of designing and implementing the LLs involved: (a) the design of prototypes by using numerical simulations, (b) the use of the design of experiments technique, (c) an ambitious experimental campaign in which LL were tested, (d) the detailed simulation of the final design, and (e) the formulation of a simplified model that considers the behaviour of the shore-LL as a unit.