Extension of the hall 285

The world's largest passenger aircraft to date, the Airbus A 380, can in future be serviced at the new repair base of Elbe Flugzeugwerke GmbH, because as part of the extension of Hall 285, the hall roof structure was modified to increase the clearance for the giant double-decker aircraft. For this purpose, new steel truss bracing was installed, which was to be monitored metrologically during the application of a prestress. The aim of the measurement was to determine and record the strains in the tie rods as well as the resulting tensile force.

To determine the strain as well as the prestressing force of the tie rods, two strain gauges were attached to each round rod. The dual design served to determine the strain and compression of the bar in the unloaded and loaded installation condition, and also to safeguard the measurement in the event that one strain gauge should fail during the tensioning work. All strain gauges were applied to the tie rods before installation and then protected against damage during lifting and installation. The tie rods were initially hand-tightened after installation. Before the actual tensioning, a continuous measurement was carried out to calibrate the strain gauges. Furthermore, a temperature sensor was attached to each test axis in order to be able to detect a possible influence of the temperature on the strain values determined. Subsequently, the nodal points in the axles were lifted alternately and uniformly with hydraulic presses. This first relieved the tension rods of stress and then applied the required tensile force or elongation by tightening the bracings with turnbuckles.

Following the successful clearing of hangar 285 and the subsequent completion of the expansion work, maintenance, repair and conversion work on the 73-meter-long and 24-meter-high widebody jet can also be carried out at Dresden Airport in the future.