Authors: F. F. S. Pinho

In the second half of the twentieth century, buildings of small (and in some cases, medium) size, with beam and block slabs were built on a large quantity in Portugal. If some walls, between interior compartments, are eliminated to increase areas, it may lead to a reduction of the local or global safety of such buildings, in some cases with very serious consequences. This paper presents the main conclusions of a study produced in FCT UNL, about the collapse of a beam and block slab of a four-story residential building, near Lisbon, including some temporary safety measures before the reconstruction of the referred slab.

F. F. S. Pinho¹
1CEris, ICIST, Departamento de Engenharia Civil, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa