Experimental Structural Safety

Impact test on a concrete beam

Load test on site for the assessment of the remaining fatigue life of an old steel bridge

In many cases the assessment of the safety and load- bearing capacity of new or existing buildings or building panels will be solely possible by experimental investigations. This is appropriate if basic mechanical properties for further calculations are needed. To determine limit values for structural analysises it is required to find out the failure mechanismen of the structure by laboratory tests. Experimental investigations are indispensible to guarantee the technical safety of buildings in the public domain.

Tasks

• Experimental investigations of the load bearing capacity of steel constructions, reinforced concrete structures, prestressed concrete structures and masonry  structures under multi-axial statically, dynamically or impact loading
• Approval tests of constructions
• Full-Scale-Tests of structures in the laboratory and on site
• Load tests on prototypes of constructions
• Impact tests and tests under high strain rates on constructions and materials
• Cyclic loading of steel- or reinforced concrete structures
• Design and development of procedures to assess the fatigue strength and remaining fatigue life of existing steel constructions
• Design and development of procedures to strengthen and to repair buildings or constructions

Testing facilities of this Working Group

25-MN large servo hydraulic testing machine
Universal large-scale test rig
Impact Testing Machine
Workspace for flexible test setups

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