ABSTRACT
In terms of planning and type of construction, structures are often designed for special requirements and a limited period of use. In the age of sparse resources, frequent changes of use, environmental damage and the consequences of inadequate building maintenance, questions arise with existing structures regarding the change of use, building modifications and the remaining service life, as the basis for decisions about investment. A prerequisite for the retention of the capital represented by existing structures is the verification of their load-bearing capacity and serviceability. The usual computational analysis assumes that, apart from the geometry, support and loading, all the major material properties and state characteristics are known and that behaviour under load can be described realistically by mathematical methods.
