Prevention of collapse: Analysis and Design

Abstract

Throughout the ages men were engaged in construction activities besides other pursuits - to build their dwellings and shelter other activities. They willed to make these structures safe and free from collapse and hence employed various methods and designs. However in spite of all precautions it is impossible to guarantee the safety from collapse and destruction due to unforeseen causes. Some of the causes could be related to human errors like: poor design, faulty construction, foundation failures, extraordinary loads, compromising on quality of building materials, workmanship for economic reasons, negligence in enforcing building codes and their compliance laxity in supervision, inspection and approval by authorities etc. the other cause could be gas explosions, soil liquefaction, terrorist attacks, material degradations etc. It is admitted that it is uneconomical to design the structure for unforeseen events unless they have a reasonable chance of occurrence. The project study “Prevention of collapse: Analysis and design” ispresumedto help understand the collapse behavior of structure and accordingly design to prevent drastic, severe failures and save human lives and property. Secondly the practices employed to ensure safety and prevent collapse are to incorporate redundancies in structure in the form of detailing, ductile designs, tying of elements at particular locations, provision of hinges and their connections. However this study is limited to understand the outcome of failures for G+5 = buildings for column loss on different storeys, the adjacent beams, the increased loads on columns and footings studied and its resistances to failures and accordingly some measures are noted to prevent further collapse and danger.