The court-appointed firm investigating the tragedy recently released an initial report identifying “punching shear” as the first point of failure. Months before Champlain collapsed ...

The extent of their vulnerability to punching shear failure is still unknown. The research has made “the profession take pause,” says Randall W. Poston, principal of WDP & Associates PC ...

Increasing the GFRP reinforcement ratio from 0.71 to 1.62 percent raised the punching shear capacities at failure significantly. Lower strains in the reinforcement and smaller slab deflections also ...

The findings of that research have now been published. A 120-tonne section of the top floor of the 1965-built car park collapsed, starting with a punching shear failure at one column which spread to ...