Load-carrying capacities and failure modes of scaffold-shoring systems, Part II: An analytical model and its closed-form solution

Critical loads and load-carrying capacities for steel scaffolds used as shoring systems were compared using computational and experimental methods in Part I of this paper. In that paper, a simple 2-D model was established for use in evaluating the structural behavior of scaffold-shoring systems. This 2-D model was derived using an incremental finite element analysis (FEA) of a typical complete scaffold-shoring system. Although the simplified model is only two-dimensional, it predicts the critical loads and failure modes of the complete system. The objective of this paper is to present a closed-form solution to the 2-D model. To simplify the analysis, a simpler model was first established to replace the 2-D model. Then, a closed-form solution for the critical loads and failure modes based on this simplified model were derived using a bifurcation (eigenvalue) approach to the elastic-buckling problem. In this closed-form equation, the critical loads are shown to be function of the number of stories, material properties, and section properties of the scaffolds. The critical loads and failure modes obtained from the analytical (closed-form) solution were compared with the results from the 2-D model. The comparisons show that the critical loads from the analytical solution (simplified model) closely match the results from the more complex model, and that the predicted failure modes are nearly identical.