Contemporary trends in formwork standards - A case study

One expression of the renewed attention gained recently by formwork for con crete is the current revision of formwork standards. This paper presents th e new Israeli formwork standard as a case study for contemporary trends in formwork standardization. The main novelty in the new standard is its simil ar treatment of the design of temporary structures to that of permanent str uctures, resulting in the replacement of the traditional allowable-stress a pproach with the concept of limit-state design and partial safety factors. The paper presents this concept and discusses its applicability to formwork design. In addition, the paper highlights several other issues of a contem porary nature, which appear to be worth debate by standardization committee members from the industry and academia. In the course of the preparation o f the new Israeli standard, American, European, and Australian standards an d similar documents were closely studied; some comparisons of design and lo ading data that may affect construction safety and economy are also present ed in this paper.