Due to the increasing scarcity of raw materials and the increasing age of building stock, the conversion and refurbishment of buildings will represent a primary focus in construction activity in the coming decades. A requirement for building conversion involving simultaneous preservation of the building structure is the demonstrability of the load capacity, and the serviceability, of existing construction. A special challenge is found in the array of “uncertainty factors” including unknown material characteristics, geometries, boundary conditions and preloads.
In order to, nonetheless, make credible statements about the current viability of a construction and to predict its load capacity under foreseeable load situations, an approach is required which makes efficient use of all available information and interim findings and combines them automatically. In a research project of the Institut für Statik und Dynamik of the Leibniz University of Hanover (Leibniz Universität Hannover) in cooperation with the engineering firm H. Sellmann of Hanover, a practice-oriented, non-destructive methodology for the determination of the serviceability and load capacities of storey-flooring slabs in historic and newer buildings has now been developed.
