ABSTRACT
Wine Figeys, Sven Ignoul & Dionys Van Gemert Department of civil engineering, KULeuven, Belgium Triconsult N.V., Lummen, Belgium
ABSTRACT: This case-study concerns an old industrial reinforced concrete shell structure at the port of Antwerp. The building serves as a pilot for stowing of shipped steel and wooden products. A fork-lift hit one of the supporting columns. The impact of the collision caused the concrete to crush and the internal reinforcement to shift considerably. Some of the internal reinforcement yielded or broke. Temporary supports had to be placed to avoid collapse of the total structure. The stress situation is analyzed. A FEM model was built to gain insight into the stress distribution in the shell structure. In comparison with the undamaged situation, membrane forces, shear forces and moments did strongly increase which explains the actual damage. A solution is worked out to repair and strengthen the damaged part of the structure. The FEM-analysis demonstrates that a compression arch will arise in the top of the barrel shell to span the displaced support. This requires a tension member at the bottom side of the concrete barrel. Therefore, externally bonded reinforcement is applied to increase the tensile capacity of the perimeter beam. The web reinforcement has yielded or is broken so that it is replaced by external CFRP reinforcement. After strengthening the structure, a monitoring system is installed. Strain gauges are glued on several laminates. These measurements give feed back on the structural behaviour of the strengthened structure and the applicability of the FEM used. This case-study illustrates the load distribution mechanisms in the shell structure, the assessment of the actual condition and an appropriate intervention based on external reinforcement.
1 INTRODUCTION
