Sanjay Choudhry, Entrepreneur and Student of Pranayama

Answered Mar 24, 2016 · Author has 135 answers and 344.5k answer views

The collapse of buildings, especially the multi-storey ones have been continuously increasing in
last few years.

DUE TO REAL ESTATE BOOM, NEW HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS ARE COMING UP

EVERYWHERE, AND THERE IS A HUGE COMPETITION IN THIS SECTOR. IN ORDER
TO STAY IN THIS COMPETITION, THE BUILDERS ARE HARD-PRESSED TO
COMPLETE THESE BUILDINGS AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE.

This has resulted in flouting of various building norms by the builders.

Many also employ unskilled workmen and use poor building materials without any proper
structural design that ultimately lead to the collapse of the buildings.

“Unfortunately building collapse are a regular phenomenon in rapidly urbanizing cities of India.
Such accidents often involve buildings in low-income, semi-formal and informal housing sectors.
There are indeed gaps in the system that lead to poor construction which need to be addressed at
various levels. Most of the illegally constructed buildings are more often than not, likely to be
substandard and dangerous. The buildings which are constructed without professional
engineering protocols and usually with untrained construction workers are most vulnerable.”

Another major reason for building collapse is that the owners of buildings are irresponsible and
have no concern for the condition of their buildings.

The old buildings are left in dilapidated conditions and are never repaired. Even when structural
cracks begin to appear, no actions are taken, resulting in eventual collapse, as happened in Matru
Krupa.

Even before the building collapsed, portions of inner slabs had begun collapsing. But the owners
apparently did not make any effort at getting them repaired.

A building is a vertical load carrying RCC member

A building is basically a vertical load bearing reinforced concrete (RCC) member which is
designed to take on various loads and pressure applied on it without breaking, bending,
overturning, or collapsing.

The buildings and their foundations are usually designed to carry dead loads, live loads and
sometimes even resist horizontal forces due to wind or earthquakes.

The dead loads are nothing but the self-weight of the buildings and the weight of the other
immovable objects that may be kept inside the building. The live loads are the movable loads that
are imposed for a short duration at a particular position. For example, weight of the moving cars
on a bridge is the live load applied on a bridge.

Similarly, in buildings, people and various other objects which are not stationary constitute live
loads.
A margin of safety called “factor of safety” is taken into consideration during the design of any
building so that a building is designed to resist a higher range of loads than what it is going to be
exposed to in practice.

Therefore, a properly designed structure which is executed according to those designs should not
collapse or show deep structural faults until its design life ends. But, many of the modern day
buildings are undergoing failure on both the counts of durability and serviceability.

Stability of a building

The stability of a building is understood with respect to its ability to resist various stresses,
displacement, and deflections that may lead to the collapse of the buildings.

THE STABILITY DEPENDS ON VARIOUS FACTORS LIKE, TYPE AND DISTRIBUTION

OF LOADS ON THE BUILDING; THE SHAPE, SIZE AND MATERIALS USED IN THE
BUILDING ETC. A BUILDING MAY COLLAPSE WHEN A LOCAL FAILURE AT ONE
STRUCTURAL MEMBER LEADS TO FAILURE AT ADJACENT MEMBERS WHICH WILL
IN-TURN LEAD TO FAILURE OF THE WHOLE BUILDING.

Sometimes, a shear wall may fail causing a side-sway failure. An overstressing of the sub-soil
below the foundation may result in settlement of sub soil which in-turn will lead to overturning
failure of the building.

Causes of building collapse

According to “Study of Recent Building Failures in the United States” report:

“The principal causes of building failures are categorized as deficiencies in design,detailing,

construction, maintenance, use of materials, and  inadequate consideration of external events.
Deficiency in design constitutes errors, mistakes, oversight, omission, or conceptual flaw that
could have taken place during the design process of the building. Detailing is a ‘‘transition’’
process between design and construction periods, in which the details of the structural design are
prepared for their implementation through shop drawings. Detailing deficiency includes errors,
mistakes,omissions, and discontinuity/loss of design concept. Construction deficiency occurs as
problems with workmanship and deviation of results from the specifications.”

The India Disaster Report 2013 points out the following causes of building collapse:

1. The structure is not strong enough to support the load and hence it fails when it reaches a
critical stress level. The structure may be weak due to its shape, size, or choice of its material.

2. The instability due to geometry, design, or material choice, will cause the structure to fail from
fatigue or corrosion.

3. Failure may also occur due to improper selection of materials, incorrect sizing, improper heat
treating, or shoddy workmanship.

4. Failure may also occur from use of defective materials. The material may have been
improperly manufactured, or may have been damaged from prior use.

5. Vandalism, sabotage, and natural disasters can overstress a structure to the point of failure.
Improper training of those who use and maintain the construction can also overstress it, leading to
potential failures.
Remedies against building collapse:

First and foremost remedy will be to curb illegal constructions.

THE MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS SHOULD ALSO CARRY OUT A SURVEY OF THE

HEALTH OF THE VARIOUS BUILDINGS TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF ITS RESIDENTS.
STRICT ACTION SHOULD BE IMPLEMENTED AGAINST THOSE WHO SUBVERT THE
LAW AND BUILD ILLEGAL BUILDINGS OR ADD EXTRA FLOORS THAN
PERMISSIBLE ACCORDING TO LOCAL BUILDING CODES.

At a technical level, no construction should ever be started without a proper structural design by a
structural engineer.

THE BUILDERS MUST EMPLOY QUALITY MATERIALS AND GOOD WORKMANSHIP

IN THE EXECUTION OF A STRUCTURE. SOIL TESTS MUST BE COMPULSORILY
CONDUCTED BEFORE THE CONSTRUCTION OF ANY BUILDING. STRICT
SUPERVISION AS WELL AS THIRD PARTY ASSESSMENT MUST BE IMPLEMENTED
TO ASSESS THE QUALITY OF WORK AT A CONSTRUCTION SITE.

Prabhakar, in his 1998 paper “Building collapses and remedies” lists various remedies to be
adopted. Some of them are:

1. The structural designs prepared by the engineer appointed by a builder must be cross-checked
by another structural engineer appointed by the municipal corporation. The municipal corporation
may hire external structural consultants for the purpose. This will prevent faulty structural
designs that may result in building failure.

2. The site execution of construction work, especially with respect to RCC work must be
supervised by an external licensed supervising engineer appointed by Municipal Corporation.

3. Soil investigation report of the site must be made mandatory and must be conducted by a
reputed institute or a laboratory. This will reduce the risk of building collapse by foundation
failure.

4. The final copies of design and drawings must be given to the owners of the building for safe
keeping which will become useful when any structural repairs are to be done in future.

5. Any structural repairs work or addition of new floors must be done only after consulting
structural engineers.

6. For buildings which are old and which are showing signs of deterioration, immediate health
check must be carried out and proper repairs must be implemented after consulting a structural
engineer.

These measures, if properly implemented by both the local authorities and the builders, will
prevent incidents of building collapses and will effectively save hundreds of lives.