Study of Recent Building Failures in the United States

Abstract

A total of 225 building failures in the United States from 1989 to 2000 were recorded in this study. The result shows that failures of low-rise buildings constitute about 63% of all cases, followed by multistory buildings as a distant second. In terms of their functions, apartments are the most frequent to fail. External events and construction and maintenance deficiencies have been identified as the most frequent principal causes. External events include rain, wind, snow, vehicular impact, and collision. Construction deficiencies encompass improper renovation, unplanned demolition, poor workmanship, and unsafe excavation operations. Maintenance deficiencies are associated with building deterioration that was overlooked and improperly maintained. A comparative analysis conducted between this study and two previous studies indicates an inclined trend of relative failure occurrences of low-rise and multistory buildings. The study also suggests that, despite the recent enhancement of information technology, current sources of information are still incomplete. The creation of new complete databases, further improvement of information sources, and their dissemination through the Internet are deemed essential to prevent building failures from recurring.

Effect of Design Ductility on the Progressive Collapse Potential of RC Frame Structures Designed to Eurocode 8

“…Being a result of common conditions such as accidental impact, construction defects, structural overloads and failure of foundations, it is the cause of most structural collapse around the world (Wardhana and Hadipriono, 2003). The United States General Service Administration (GSA) and the Department of Defence (DoD) have presented practical guidelines (GSA, 2003 andDoD, 2005) for progressive collapse analysis of building.…”

A probabilistic assessment for classification of bridges against fire hazard

“…Further, Wardhana and Hadipriono [8] recently published statistical data on total number of highway bridges and number of collapsed bridges in the US over a period of 11 years (1989-2000). Wardhana and Hadipriono [8] reported that there are 691,060 highway bridges.…”

“…However, in current practice, structural members in bridges are to be designed for earthquake loading but not for fire hazard [7]. In addition, Wardhaua and Hadipriono [8] as well as Scheer [9] showed that 3.2% and 4.9% of total bridge population experienced some level of collapse due to fire, respectively. Similarly, Kodur et al [1,10] reviewed recent bridge fire incidents and concluded that bridge fires can lead to major structural damage or collapse of bridges.…”

Tracking architectural defects in university building in Malaysia

“…The common causes of the defects highlighted are: (1) lack of monitoring or supervision by responsible authorities, (2) lack of technical expertise and full reliance on contractors or consultants, (3) lack of coordination between agencies involved, (4) internal problems faced by the contractors, and (5) contractual issues. Notwithstanding, the government have realised that this cannot continue and they are not getting the value for money for their projects c) recording and publishing several construction defects that occurred in public buildings and their lessonlearnt in a book d) enforcing Defects Liability Management System for the management of defective works on seven hospital projects constructed in the Malaysian Eight Plan (RMK8) Following this, [20] found that defects are being repeated in many projects even when constructed by the same contractor. Thus, a study on the nature of the defects and possible approaches to track their root cause is very necessary.…”