Experimental Study on Load Carrying Capacity Enhancement of System Supports Considering Full Installation of Bracing Members

This study investigated the ultimate load capacity of assembled system supports by comparing cases with and without bracing members. Supports used as temporary structures are essential to resist the concrete casting load. Current trends encourage the use of system supports to prevent the collapse of supports, which occur frequently. Studies regarding the ultimate behavior of system supports in Korea are fewer than those in other countries. Existing studies have only focused on the behavior of unit members, such as vertical members. However, studies that focused on unit vertical members under axial loading reported difficulty in predicting the ultimate behavior of assembled system supports. Furthermore, the ultimate strength of the system support can be decreased significantly in cases without a bracing member, which occur frequently at actual sites. Therefore, the ultimate behavior of the system support considering actual construction site conditions was investigated through experimental tests, focusing on whether bracing members were installed. Experimental results showed that the load-carrying capacity of a three-story system support without a bracing member was 38.4% that of the system support with full bracing members. In addition, the load-carrying capacity of the three-story system support without bracing members decreased by 41.2% compared with that of a two-story system support without bracing members. This indicates that the installation of bracing members is essential for increasing the ultimate load capacity of system supports, and the number of stories of system supports should be considered to determine their ultimate strength.