Main Causes of Building Collapse - Essay Example

MAIN CAUSES OF BUILDING COLLAPSE Abstract Buildings collapsing are becoming a common phenomenon in the world. The reasons why many building do collapse has not been unveiled and thus there high chances for continuation of the same. It has therefore been my desires to search for these causes; which I believe will help the nation on getting solutions of this problem. Introduction Buildings are quite essential assets for the many purposes of human benefits. Since the birth of civilization and technology dawn, a number of changes have taken place in all sectors of development. Building sectors forms the decent places for individual and public living has not been an exceptional to the transitions. Building designs and structural features have greatly changed year by year which is aimed to satisfy the preference of the new generations of fashions and styles. Although styles and fashions perhaps have contributed to the introductions of the current building designs, there are other numerous reasons which are also attached to the change. Some of these reasons include safety and materials availability for the construction of the particular building. However, the most significant factors which should be put in the fore front in the consideration of setting up any building is the strength. The strength of a building provides both the directly and indirect security of the inhabitants of the building. It is notable that weak buildings are bound to collapse. Such cases of building collapsing causes havoc to property and human life. The collapsing of buildings thus may lead to several drawbacks both do individuals and a country as whole. This depends on the purpose and the site at which the building stands. Whichever the situation, the fact remains that there are losses in terms of either property loss or life lose which are two, major factors for production. In addition many other costs are incurred in the process of rescue and recovery of the assets from the wreck building. This makes collapsing of building a very disadvantages puzzle to any country for which Dubai is not excluded. The examination of the causes of a perilous problem will therefore enable the Dubai community /society to look for solution(s) which will curb to a certain degree this problem in the time. (Wieland, 2004) Methodology to use The research is going to be carried by sourcing information from diverse people in different sectors which are involved in the building and constriction work. In orders to have reliable data, there will be questionnaires which will be send to various ten executive people in all divisions in the Dubai region. This is because face to face consultation with the experts is costly in terms of fare and still time consuming. In addition, there will be review of major reports on collapsed buildings from previous data records in the department of housing and construction. This will be requested from the main office to assists the researcher to access their records. The data will be analysed by grouping the answers given according to either natural causes and man initiated causes. Any answers given which doses not lie within the particular categories will also be considered as a special case. Ethical consideration One of the major considerations in this research is to make sure that there is privacy and respect. Privacy is paramount as certain information which will be required to be disclosed is sensitive. The respondents will therefore deny disclosure of the information if the participants is not going to assure them secrecy and security in their profession in the future. Respondents will always find it worth to give information to clients with respect. The questionnaires and the requests letters should thus reflect this virtue to create a new mood to the respondents. In addition, the participant should obtain a letter from the authorities stating the reasons why he intends to carry out the research. Such a form or document should accompany the questionnaires send to clear the respondent’s fear of the information disclosure. (Miller, 2002) Research planning period activity 1st week Collect the materials for questionnaire 2nd week Seek legal authorization documents for carrying out the research 3rd week conduct the speculative respondents 4th week Send the questionnaires to select respondents 5th week Visit the national office on construction and building to review the previous data records 6th week Collects the filled questionnaires 7th week Compile the received questionnaires 8th week Analyse the data Dissemination and Outcome When the research will be completed, many people may access the report research. The reports is quite important especially to those people involved in the construction hence, the research will be handed to the construction sector department. Possible depending on financial status such report will be published by the sector to be distributed among the major constructions industries. This will also involve those people who do construction work in other sectored as they may use it to check the integrations of their sectors with the sector on housings construction. (Miller, 2002) Causes Generally, the causes of collapsing of the Dubai buildings can be categorized in two major headings depending on the research result analysis. Man-made cause Awkward design Design is a core parts in the constructions of many structures. The appropriate design is one which caters the full need of the building purposes. Many building are set up in Dubai without prior consideration of their use of the final products. The lack of the purpose of the building makes many buildings designs to have mistakes on ones on way. The standards which are set in such buildings are mostly below the standards of national architectural designs which require that each particulars building have its own standards determined by loads and weight to be held in the building. The lack of discloser of building use automatically leads to erroneous and inaccurate data. Several designers having little information about the workloads/ weight to be supported, they end up get indulged on data which is inaccurate hence resulting to improper choices of materials. Dismals knowledge on the properties of materials makes engineers to dramatically fail in their design work. Foundation failure Foundation is what holds a building high up on its own positions. Man activities such continuous construction of buildings interrupts the original settings of foundation. The evenly and excellently constructed buildings which were once standing upright on firm grounds are weakened. The weakening of foundation through this process leads to the sinking of most buildings. While the building sinks, most of them collapses and hit other adjacent structural buildings. The collapsing of tall buildings closely build in the city centres causes a series phenomenon mostly sand type soils. Dubai being one of most developing countries, it embarked on mitigation of new infrastructure as well as improvement on the old road transport means. The construction of these new infrastructures has contributed to failure of foundations through blasts of excavation to remove the stony parts on the roadways. Displacement weaken foundations and alter the distribution of the stress within the buildings significantly. While time is the best prophets in history, at certain period this results to collapsing of the building. (Glisic, 2005) Faulty construction The collapse of building in major cities of the worlds is caused by faulty construction. Dubai state is strategically situated in areas with dry places where materials such as sand areas not rare to find. However, this particulars material has profound effects on the buildings of Dubai. One of the greatest mistakes emerging from faulty construction is resulting from the use of the salty sand which makes a substitute of concrete. The fault constructions come from the failure of the engineers to inspect the materials brought for building. This includes the salty sand and the inferior steel materials as per the specifications of the designer engineers. Further probes have provided authentic results that inspections on certain parts of the buildings are seldom exercised by engineers. The precarious work on ensuring rivets, bolts and nuts are properly tightened and appropriately fixed both in spacing and numbers has led to weakening of building by other natural means. Height Dubai is one the country with a number of tall buildings in the world. Tall building which are build within the city of Dubai creates marginal climates. Theses building cause blurred weather conditions in most parts of the city due to fog and smog formation. The reduction of visibility most in areas surrounding the city of perhaps contributes numerous dangers to the buildings. Like in any other country, the reduced visibility has led to frequent airplane falling which hit the building making some of the collapse whiles others are weakened. Gradual natural and artificial action continues the weakening of the building through expanded crevices which at long last makes the building to fall down. Fire Energy from all sources is all important to people if well utilized and installed. Fire installations require experts who can prudent create the necessary safe conditions. Although Dubai has many electronic engineers, rampant fire problems on building are found in the cities. The causes for the fire have been depicted to be poor installed systems. Workers who installed such power systems raised complain which at long last yields to poor services. Apart from this main mistake from the poor worker collision with the management, poor quality power systems which are manufactured mistakes frequent explosion sparking blazing fire on the buildings. (Wieland, 2004) Natural causes Generally, there are extraordinary loads which contribute substantial destructions to buildings all over the world. Snowfall loads which give rise to collapsing of building is common in far countries founds in the artic and Antarctic regions but not in hot areas of Dubai. The two major naturals cause of the problem building collapsing are earthquakes and wind hurricanes. Dubai country being in the lowers parts of Asia and close to the sea often is prone to earthquakes. Within the past few decades eminent earthquakes have stricken the country causing many buildings which lie to the western side to crack and other to fall down. The great earth movements are unbearable with most buildings facing threat from this movement. The lacks of vegetations has given way to speeds winds which move across the Dubai lands. Normally, the raging winds often blow away the buildings roofs. In addition some of the strong winds have caused wall of buildings to fall apart. The trend of wind blown walls is largely experienced in the place with clustered tall buildings. (Megan, 2006) Another cause for building to collapse is weakening of the materials making the buildings. Building materials like steel and iron made materials are prone to change in property when exposed to different unfavourable weather conditions. Irons and steel products used in the setting up building colloids because of wet weathers during the rains seasons. During the rain season, bricks which contain substantial amounts of salt ions absorb waters from the atmospheres and stress in exposed to the building. The materials may become weak enough not to support the weight above it, then, it breakdown leading to fall of buildings. Experts also say that mortar is affected by such changes which are experienced in many parts of Dubai. (Wieland, 2004) Conclusions There are numerous causes of collapsing of building in Dubai. This comprises both human activities and natural occurring activities. Human actions are the prevalent causes as compared to natural causes. However, one single activity which cause some weakening leading to collapsing of building, and there is synchronization of all these causes natural and man actions. Reference: Miller, D. (2002): handbook of research design and social Measurement: sage publishers Wieland, R. (2004): Earthquake Detection and Safety in construction Megan, K. (2006) In Dubai, the Sky's No Limit Hoffman, J. (2005): Building a Better Mirage: Retrieved from, http:// 911 research.wtc7.net: date: 2008-05-12 Fourwind10 .com (2007): Explosions in WTC: Retrieved From: www.fourwinds10.com : date 12th May 2008 Braile, L. (2003): Hazards, Risk, Magnitude, Earthquake statistics: Retrieved from: http:// web.ics.purdue.educ: date 12 May 2008 Read More