Technique to Evaluate Safety and Loaded Heavy Equipment Grade in RC Building during Demolition Work

ABSTRACT During mechanical demolition of RC structures, weights of dismantling equipment and demolition waste of building are applied to unexpected load which did not be considered during the design of structural member. Nevertheless, the loading of dismantling equipment and dismantling process are mainly dependent on field managers’ field workers’ or experiences without considering safety of structural member by a structural engineer. It is urgently required that reflecting actual circumstance of mechanical demolition, safety evaluation method to evaluate the safety and the guideline for appropriate capacity of structural member to support dismantling equipment weight, be provided. Through site investigation and questionnaire on field workers, this paper proposed demolition waste load, load factor, strength reduction factor, and so on. These are essential to safe evaluation of a building, ready to demolition. Considering actual circumstance of mechanical demolition, safety evaluation method of building and design method of slab and beam was suggested to a dilapidated building. An capability to loading of dismantling equipment was proposed, applied to RC slab and RC beam. Therefore, the suggested safety evaluation method and the guideline for an capability to loading of dismantling equipment weight can reasonably evaluate the capacity of structural member in demolition and use effectively as increasing efficiency and improving safety of demolition through proper management of dismantling equipments.Key words: Mechanical demolition, Structural safety, Yield line theory, Nonlinear analysisLHI Journal (2011) 2(2):195-204 Engineering Technologyhttp://lhi.lh.or.kr