Abstract
A significant number of accidents has occurred with demountable grandstands in the past as well as recently. The performance of such structures is the subject of this paper. First, structural details and some structural systems of actual grandstands are presented and discussed. Next, specifics of the design, erection, and inspection process are detailed. Finally, a survey of cases of collapse of demountable grandstands is presented and discussed. Ninety three cases of collapse were found between the years 1889 and 2008, in which more than 85 people died and 6,350 were injured. From these, 35 cases in which information about the causes of collapse were available were selected. An analysis of the causes showed that unexpected or excessive loads were the major contributing cause, followed by problems with the supports, connections, and bracing. Possible measures that could be adopted aimed at minimizing the risk of accidents with these structures are discussed.
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