Assessment of the Performance of RC Strips by In-Situ Load Testing

A three-story apartment building on the University of Miami campus, built in 1947 and scheduled for demolition in the spring of 2011, was used as a research test bed. Two identical strips of the one-way reinforced concrete (RC) slab of the first floor of the building were saw cut and load-tested according to the ACI 437-12 load test protocol. After conducting the load test, the slab strips were loaded to failure. This allowed for observations on the margin of safety with respect to failure, a determination that is not generally possible in a proof load test. The analysis of the results provides experimental evidence on the validity of the load test practice for the assessment of structural members.