Zur Modellierung des Tragverhaltens eines Balken-Stützen-Systems im Rahmen der Abklärungen eines Dacheinsturzes

Modeling of the load-bearing behavior of a column-beam system in the frame of the investigations of a roof collapse

In February 2009, the snow covered roof of the triple sports hall of a gymnasium collapsed in St. Gallen, Switzerland. The failure analysis showed that the collapse initiated through local web buckling under the load introduction at the ends of the main plate girders spanning the transverse roof direction. The result of the failure analysis was disputed, since an alternative hypothesis claimed that the failure of the existing steel-concrete composite columns could have triggered the collapse as well.
The alternative hypothesis was based on an unplanned transmission of a bending moment, which would have caused the failure of those columns and consequently of the whole roof. The error of this hypothesis was that, as allowed in structural design, a load was applied on an "isolated" structural element of the statically indeterminate system.