Building Collapse: Factors and Resisting Mechanisms, a Review

Abstract

All through the ages in all human civilizations men have been engaged in construction activity, not only to build their dwellings and house their activities, but also roads, bridges to facilitate means of transport, and communication etc. The main concern in this activity was to ensure safety and reduce the collapse of the buildings and other structures. But even after taking all precautions it is impossible to guarantee the safety and collapse because of several unforeseen reasons like faulty constructions, design errors, overloading, soil liquefactions, gas explosion, material degradation, terrorist attacks and economic factors are also contributing to the collapse. It is also uneconomical to design the structure for unforeseen events unless they have reasonable chance of occurrence. In order to ensure the safety and prevent collapse, many guidelines have been framed by local bodies and government authorities in many countries like United States Department of Defence (DOD), United States General Service Administration (GSA) and Euro-Codes in European Nations. Some other practices are followed to incorporate redundancies in the structure like detailing, ductile designs, tying of elements at particular locations, provision of hinges and inter connections. It is also to be admitted that full proof safe design structure for accidental events cannot be prepared and implemented as it is uneconomical and the chances of such occurrences are less. This paper reviews past case studies of collapse of structures with an aim to develop an understanding of collapse mechanism. This study will definitely help to bring about a detailed improvement in the design to maximize the quality of the construction at a minimal cost.