J.L.Y. Chan and S.H.

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Fig. 4. Description of soil spring model adopted.

Qult 34kN
kp = = = 6.8kN / mm
z 5mm (7)

where Qult is the design capacity for a column in a system scaffold unit
shown in Fig. 6a and Δz is the design allowable settlement for the
column’s support. Note that by adopting 6.8 kN/mm for the value of kp,
the settlement of any given supports will unlikely exceeds 5 mm before
reaching ultimate load capacity. As such, the supporting structure for
the scaffold systems deform within the confinement of the permissible
design (Fig. 7).
Settlement zones are designated for each set of system scaffold.
Positional spring restraint with stiffness kp is assigned for each support
within the settlement zone as illustrated in Figs. 8 to 11. The designated
settlement zones represent a similar yet simplified version of the dif-
ferential settlement experienced by the collapsed system scaffold de-
scribed in Fig. 1.

5.3. Loading assignment

Direct analysis conducted in this study evaluates the ultimate load

bearing capacities of system scaffolds by the Newton Raphson method
of load incrementation with point loads applied to the top of each
column at the top storey (Fig. 5).
Effective length method (ELM) based on the BS5950 [17] estimates
the ultimate load bearing capacity with linear analysis. Destabilizing
notional horizontal force equal to 0.5% of the total vertical load are
applied as shown in Fig. 5 for global imperfection per design require-
ment for ELM.
Fig. 5. Loading assignment for a typical row of system scaffold.