Essay on The Causes of Building Collapse

"Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems." (Adams). A field in civil engineering that analyzes and designs structures that support or resist loads is called structural engineering. Modern projects could be drawn by architects but could not be feasible without the structural engineer's ability.

Using their ability will help maintain a safe design which will prevent any defects that might occur as a result of external forces such as weather impacts. "Structural engineering is the art of molding materials we don't wholly understand, into shapes we can't fully analyze, so as to withstand forces we can't really assess, in such a way that the community at large has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance"(Amrhein,2009). Various types of construction projects such as towers, dams, tunnels etc. have collapsed from poor design. Civil engineers try to mitigate any risk that might occur by strengthening the structure and maintaining it.

According to Dictionary.com (n.d.) construction means "the occupation or industry of building". Construction can be anything like houses, shelters or very important government buildings. A lot of constructions collapsed over the past periods due to bad places, bad tools and disasters. Civil engineers thought about new aspects of building the construction in order to resist the collapse.

Order custom essay Essay on The Causes of Building Collapse with free plagiarism report

450+ experts on 30 subjects Starting from 3 hours delivery

Get Essay Help

What is collapse?

The basic definition of collapse is when something ruptures or falls. This applies to engineering and is called construction collapse, where the structure basically falls down and might cause some damage to the surrounding due to poor design, unforeseen loads, and disasters...etc. This paper focus is on construction collapse that occurs vertically and diagonally. H.Bumejdad (personal communication, November 29,2013), argues that "Vertical construction collapse or progressive collapse occurs when a subjected load is transferred to adjoining structural elements due to failure of a primary element, causing overload, Which means more than that element's design can hold.

One example of this type of collapse is the World Trade Centre when it got tore down." H.Bumejdad (personal communication, November 29,2013), explains diagonal collapse is a different type; this type can be seen during construction for example if you see major deflections. Design errors, computer modeling, torsional buckling, and faulty welds mainly cause this.

Every day all over the world, buildings collapse and cause damage for the site and the society itself. There are many reasons that make the construction collapse. For instance, foundation failure, using poor materials, unexpected factors or simply not fixing the construction for long time can cause collapse.

Foundation failure means bad location or bad base. Foundation Failure Sometimes can cause collapse and sometimes not, for example, the leaning Tower of Pisa. That happens because the base does not provide good enough support for the construction, for example, building on landfills or seashore.

Materials can also affect the constructions in a lot of different ways according to the materials used and their quality. Material manufacture differs from one company to another. If the quality was not up to standards then some might not handle the load, heat, and pressure, "Bad design does not mean only errors of computation, but a failure to take into account the loads the structure will be called upon to carry, erroneous theories, reliance on inaccurate data, ignorance of the effects of repeated or impulsive stresses, and improper choice of materials or misunderstanding of their properties" (Calvert, 2002). Choosing the right material for the project will affect the performance of the construction. Using iron instead of steel might cause failure since it does not hold pressure as much as steel.

As mentioned above engineers have several types of collapse, a historical collapse example could be 9/11 which had a major effect on the global market. World trade center was designed as a new approach to skyscraper, resists earthquakes and weather impacts. It was designed as a large cantilever vertical column. The egg-crate construction made a redundant structure (i.e., if one or two columns were lost, the loads would shift into adjacent columns and the building would remain standing). When the first impact happened all loads where transferred from the lost columns to the remaining ones, the lost ones where not enough to break down the structure. The cause of its collapse was because of the very hot jet fuel that melted the steel structure.

H.Bumejdad (personal communication, November 29,2013) mentions that "Disasters might also collapse a construction project depending on its size. Forecast when and where a disaster will hit but what can do is to prepare ourselves and our structures." Examples of Projects That Mitigate Construction Collapse H.Bumejdad (personal communication, November 29,2013) adds that "Some countries have a high rate of earthquake attacks to build anything in that region will require a high spec design.

Earthquakes in general will erupt the concrete building, even if it was a steel structure but with low manufacture specs. Therefore engineers nowadays try to evade earthquakes by using the Chinese Seismic Design Code. This code is a modern way of joining the skeleton of the structure where the support's role is shared and integrated within each other." (Bumejdad,2013)

Other than earthquakes some construction materials are subject to fire, it can be set on fire quickly. Thus, engineers should find a better alternative to make the building fire proof. Steel is a good alternative but it did not help that much in the twin towers, but how high is the probability that a plane will crash into the building filled with fuel? Treated concrete and ceramic fiber can also be used since they have low thermal conductivity.

Weather impacts such as hurricanes can cause serious damage to the building. When wind hits the building it hits its facing walls which will act as a barrier, and this will build up pressure that can break through the walls, “Extraordinary loads are often natural, such as repeated heavy snowfalls, or the shaking of an earthquake, or the winds of a hurricane" (Calvert, 2002). To resist such wind pressure engineers use cladding in their design, the structure has to be braced in order to transmit those forces to the ground. Moreover the foundations should be well designed to resist uplift and sideways force. If the structure has some sort of venting in it this will also help in reducing the load.

In conclusion, there are many things that can cause constructions collapse such as bad location, poor materials and unexpected factors. Engineers thought hard to look for a solution to every specific case because it is the first step for safe buildings. They designed different projects that can help to handle it task under any circumstances. Thus, all that mean that many factors affect an engineering construction project such as geographical location, quality of material used, disasters, management, communication etc. to maintain a safe operational building, engineers try to find different methods to reach this goal.

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Run a free check or have your essay done for you

Check my essay Hire Writer