Experimental tests on steel telescopic props. Discussion of important aspects

Abstract

Telescopic props represent a common solution to support the formwork during the construction of buildings. The design of these props is often associated to high safety factors, due to insufficient information about their real behavior at the construction site, under the influence of load eccentricities and geometric imperfections. A research project is now being developed at the Portuguese National Laboratory for Civil Engineering (LNEC), involving experimental and numerical studies of the props behavior and, in particular, of the effects of the geometric imperfections and corresponding tolerances on their stability. The experimental studies will be carried out in accordance with the provisions stipulated by the European Standard EN 1065:1998 “Adjustable telescopic steel props”. A series of tests involving the testing of 70 telescopic props subjected to axial compression is scheduled. This paper describes the test procedure and presents a bibliographic review focusing in the most important factors influencing experimental test results.