Written by Dr Geoff Edgell, director and principal consultant at Lucideon, the paper discusses the benefits of testing whole structures, opposed to independently testing the elements that make up a structure.  Dr Edgell draws upon his years of experience in the construction industry, and recent trends seen in the Lucideon structural testing laboratories, to deliver case study examples that support his argument.

Geoff said:

"We perform testing during all stages of product and structure design and development, from concepts through to regulatory testing before market launch.  There is great value in testing components and sub-assemblies, especially during design and development, however there is also a significant argument for full scale testing."

"What we quite often see is a difference in the behaviour of sub-assemblies and individual elements when incorporated in a full scale structure as opposed to when they are tested independently or as part of a structure.  This is expected to some degree as the relationship with the surrounding structure will alter behaviour, but we often see substantial differences, beyond what might be predicted.  Testing can provide important information to assess and calculate the performance of the structure."

Lucideon provides materials development, testing and analysis services to a wide range of industries, including construction.  Lucideon's structural testing laboratories, based in its UK headquarters in Stoke-on-Trent, have multi-storey facilities for testing large scale structures, as well as a wide range of test rigs to simulate environmental and physical conditions.  Its expert structural scientists and engineers can also perform specialist on-site testing and analysis for large scale structures.

The white paper can be downloaded via the Resources panel on the right of this page.