Question

Give a real world example where a structure collapsed or became structurally unsafe, or settled excessively due to insufficient soil strength.

Answer 1

Theseare the reason for structure collapsed...

1. Overload… Too many people on a balcony or deck is a common reason for collapse of such structures or when the occupancy of areas are changed without an evaluation
2. Lack of maintenance… A lack of maintenance will lead to things like not noticing a problem before it becomes catastrophic
3. Use of inferior materials/chemicals… Such as older (1960s - 1980s) fire retardant treated wood roof assemblies made with cheap ammonium phosphate are prone to collapse after 25 years of service
4. Bad engineering… Structural engineers make mistakes, everyone does, but in small firms a lack of multiple people checking designs can lead to bad calculations and structural failures
5. Under-designed… Dont confuse this with bad engineering, under-designed means you followed the code correctly and performed good calculations but it still was inadequate for the loads
6. Fire… Fire reduces steel yield strengths, causes concrete to undergo chemical changes that weakens it, causes masonry to spall/crack and will consume wood materials… All of which can result in collapse
7. Bad construction… The most common reason for an attached and self-supported deck to collapse is the contractor only provided nails between the deck ledger and the structure of the house, resulting in the deck pulling away
8. Impact damage… Such as someone driving a car into a house, which can result in partial collapses
9. Storm damage… Winds generally dont result in a collapse as things are lifted away and not falling downwards, but floods can cause buildings/bridges to collapse
10. Soils… Development of a sinkhole (man made or natural) can obviously cause a building/bridge to collapse
11. Seismic… Earthquakes can make just about anything collapse if it is not designed for the magnitude of accelerations occuring

These are the ones I can think of without putting much effort into it.

The following example of structure collapsed....

THE TACOMA NARROWS BRIDGE IN 1940:-

REASON-Flexibility and unstable cables

DETAILS ABOUT THIS-the original designer intended to create greater stability with a more standard design, the cost was exorbitant, around $200 million in today's money. Instead, a cheaper option using plate girders gained approval. The girders, though, were only one-third the height of the originally proposed trusses,which tezulted in a disproportionate depth to width ratio.As a result, the bridge was extremely flexible and vulnerable to high-speed winds. When a 40mph wind struck on 7th nov 1940, the bridge started to twist and buck wildly. The bridge finally gave way, snapping the support cables and dropping into the river below.

2) A WALKWAY AT HAYATT REGENCY AT KANSAS CITY ...

REASON-weight distribution

3)The roof of the Kemper Arena in Kansas City collapsed during a rainstorm because of drainage issues.

4)A poorly designed tower in London reflected and magnified sunlight until it was melting cars and frying eggs.

5)2 apartments collapsed Hutchins road in banglore india due to First, the builder had built a floor more than sanctioned in the building plan. What’s more, the foundation was weak. Third, the soil was unfit for a construction of that size.

6)

Ocean Tower

One example of a famous foundation failure right here in Texas is South Padre south OCEAN TOWER. Ocean Tower was originally designed to be a 31-story building which housed high-end condominiums. However, construction of the tower couldn’t be completed because of foundation problems discovered in early 2008. The expansive soil beneath the tower began to compact, causing the building to sink and lean. Construction ceased and the building had to be demolished in 2009.

Many more are structure which is collapsed in world due to foundation weak, soil stability , max loading , wind speed, and other etc.