Safety guideline for safe concrete placement utilizing the information on the structural behavior of formwork

Temporary structures are designed from complex structural analyses. Concrete formwork is a representative temporary structure, and frequently fails during construction due to unexpected external factors. Therefore, safety managers should constantly monitor structural behavior to determine whether the formwork is performing safely. Information on structural behavior provides knowledge on the characteristics of actual temporary structures and can help ensure safe concrete placement. The objective of this study is to present a guideline for safe concrete placement based on an understanding of the structural behavior of concrete formwork. Using ubiquitous sensor network devices, an indoor test bed was built to test the structural behavior of concrete formwork. Eight scenarios were investigated, representing typical safety conditions that occur for concrete formwork. Finite-element analysis was conducted for these scenarios to provide a guideline for safe concrete placement. Laboratory loading tests conducted on the test bed validated that the safety guideline provided a suitable procedure to cope with abnormal behaviors on concrete formwork and can be applied to ensure safe concrete placement.