Question

As a Mechanical engineer, to prevent building collapse from happen, Based on Engineering statics what factor should you take into account in designing the structure of the mall and if ever this incident(building collapse) happen how would you as an engineer react and solve this issue.

Answer 1

• Building components tend to fail depending on materials, designs, method of construction, environmental conditions and the use to which the building is put. Substandard materials and design errors are major causes of component failure.

Some of the main causes for building collapses are bad design, faulty construction, foundation failure, extraordinary loads, unexpected failure modes or a combination of causes. But collapses also occur due to natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, cyclones and fires.

Common Design faults:

All structures are designed to support loads without deforming excessively. These loads include live load, which is the weight of people and objects, rain and wind, and the dead load of the building itself. Internal factors/human errors.

The internal factors for bad design don’t only mean errors of computation, but a failure to account for loads the structure will be expected 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. The structural engineer is responsible for these failures, which are created at the drawing board. Sometimes failures occur due to obvious negligence or gross human error.

The external factorsThese are often natural, such as extraordinary loads, heavy rain, earthquakes, hurricanes and a defective site, with very unusual ground conditions, like sinking holes or swampy land. A building that is intended to stand for some years should be able to meet all these challenges. This is incorporated into the design. Identification of the characteristics of particular site conditions by the engineers/consultants, through suitable geo technical studies, can help with site selection and site progress that reduce the risk of failure. Inadequate awareness.

In order to solve the building collapse issue, there are some principles must be followed which are as follows:

1) Strict Adherence to Quality Building Materials.

2) The RIGHT Human Resource.

3) The RIGHT Design Structure.

4) Proper Maintenance Culture.

5) Passing and Signing the National Building Code.