Fundamental strength test for fall-down prevention of exterior wall during demolition using temporary members

Abstract

When demolishing a building, a method called the fall-down method is implemented. In this method, the lower section of the exterior wall is manually weakened by the workers, and the exterior wall is pulled down using wire ropes. At a small-scale demolition site, the exterior wall is pulled down manually using wire ropes. However, it is possible for the exterior wall to fall down inward during the weakening of the lower section of the wall, leading to accidents and casualties. The wire rope also functions to prevent the fall-down of the exterior wall in the outward direction. However, there is no way to prevent fall-down of the exterior wall in the inward direction. In this study, to prevent such inward fall-down when the workers are still working on weakening the lower section of the exterior wall, a fall-down prevention method using temporary members has been proposed. The effectiveness and useability of this method were examined using a full-scale test. The results confirmed that this method can reliably prevent the fall-down of the exterior wall of a medium-sized building in the inward direction.