• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.167-186
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• 2004

The design load-carrying capacities of wooden shores depend on factors, such as the wood species and properties, and construction methods. This paper focuses on the construction methods, including an upright single shore, group of upright shores, group of inclined shores, butt connections and lap connections. This paper reports experiments to obtain critical loads and then developed an empirical equation based on Euler' formula for the critical loads and design load-carrying capacities. The test results show that the critical loads for an upright single wooden shore are greater than the average values for a group of upright shores, and the latter are greater than the average values for a group of inclined shores. Test results also show that the critical loads become smaller when butt or lap connections are used, butt connections possessing greater critical loads than lap connections. Groups of inclined shores are very popular at work sites because they have some practical advantages even though they actually possess inferior critical loads. This paper presents an improved setup for constructing groups of inclined shores. With this method, the inclined shores have larger critical loads than upright shores. The design load-carrying capacities were obtained by multiplying the average critical loads by a resistance factor (or strength reduction factor, ${\phi}$) that were all smaller than 1. This article preliminarily suggests ${\phi}$ factors based on the test results for the reference of engineers or specification committees.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.385-404
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• 2020

Since the scaffold is composed of modular members, the total height of multi-story scaffolds does not often meet with the headroom of construction buildings. At this time, other supporting members need to be set up on the top of scaffolds. However, the mechanical behaviors of the combined system of scaffolds and other supporting members have seldom been discussed. This study explores the stability of the combined system of scaffolds and shores. The loading tests conducted in the laboratory show that the critical load of the combined system of two-story scaffolds and wooden shores is about half that of the three-story scaffold system with the same height. In the failure of both the "scaffold system" and the "combined system of scaffolds and shores' after loading, the deformation mainly occurs in the in-plane direction of the scaffold. The outdoor loading test shows that no failure occurs on any members when the combined system fails. Instead, the whole system buckles and then collapses. In addition, the top formwork of the combined system can achieve the effect of lateral support reinforcement with small lateral support forces in the outdoor loading test. This study proposes the preliminary design guidelines for the scaffolding structural design.