Building Components and Failure Modes - Report Example

Building components and failure modes Name Institution Course Tutor 5.1 Introduction International Building Code (IBC) classifies building and structures into five types. The building type should meet the minimum requirement of fire resistive abilities of the primary material ((Technical bulletin 2008). According to IBC, building types are categorised in Roman numerals from Type I to Type V. Type I and II are the buildings that are made of materials such as masonry, concrete and steel, these two types are considered to be non-combustible. Type III is a combination of non-combustible materials for the exterior walls while the interior building can be made of any other material permitted by IBC such as wood (Technical bulletin 2008). Type IV is also known as heavy timber or mill construction and comprises buildings that are made of non-combustible materials on the exterior walls while the interior building utilizes timber. Type V is the least restrictive type that permits exterior and interior walls to be made of any material that is permitted by IBC such as wood framed residential ((Technical bulletin 2008). 5.2 Building Team A building team can be divided into four main parts which comprises of Professionals, Technicians, Building crafts and Building operatives (The construction Industry and the Building Team p 4 n d). The professionals are the architect who designs and supervise the production of drawings and the construction of the building, the engineer who could a civil engineer involved in earth moving, roads and sewers. Another professional is surveyor who can either be a land surveyor or building surveyor or a quantity surveyor. A land surveyor is interested with the position of the building, the roads or sewer, building surveyor is interested in administration and adaptation of work while the quantity surveyor is involved in measurement and description of the building work (The construction Industry and the Building Team p 4 n d). The technicians in a building team comprises of a building technician, building surveyor technician and quantity surveyor technician. The building surveyor technician is involved in estimating, procurement, site survey and management of work at the site. The building surveyor is specialised in maintenance of the building, control or structural surveys, while the quantity surveying technician is involved in calculation of the cost and payments for the work (The construction Industry and the Building Team p. 5 n d). The third group of a building team is formed by Bricklayers who deals with bricks and mortar, Carpenter dealing with timbers, Joiners who also deal with timber, Plumbers who work with metals, plastics, installs sinks toilets, baths and gas appliances, Painters and Decorator who work with paint, fabric and sign writing. There are also Electricians who work with metals, plastics, cables and wires (The construction Industry and the Building Team p 5 n d). The final group that constitute a building team is comprised of building operatives who include general building operatives and specialist building operatives. The general building operatives use various items such as hand tools, power tools, mixers, dumper trucks and they off load materials at the site and generally assist in the craft work. The specialist building operative, carry out operations such as fixing ceiling and plant mechanical roof sheerer (The construction Industry and the Building Team p 6 n d). 5.3 Design Process According to Part 1 Principles of Construction, a building project can be delivered to the owner in five phases. First is pre-design phase it’s also called the planning phase. It’s the most important part of the five phases and involves defining the function, purpose, scope, size and economics, and the completion or failure of the project depends on how this stage was defined. The second stage is the design phase and it’s usually after selecting the architect. Mostly the design team consists of architect, civil, mechanicals, electrical, plumbing and fire protection consultants. At times the architect may act as the senior design professional and to a certain degree as the owner’s representative. The third stage is the pre-construction stage which starts when the construction drawings have been made and specifications made and ends up in selecting the construction team. The fourth stage is the construction phase which begins after the contract has been awarded and finally the last stage of the design process is the post construction phase. After the construction is complete the contractor asks the architect to conduct a completion inspection to confirm the work is over and by this the contractor implies the project is over and the owner can occupy the facility and begin to use it (Part 1Principles of Construction, chapter 1). 5.4 Site Investigation Site investigation is crucial for successful completion of a building project (A client’s guide to site investigation 2004). Site investigation can be define as the overall process aimed to come up with information, analyse data, assessment and generate a report. The information gathered could be on the past or current land use, geology and ground water. Investigations are carried out to appraise the site for suitability of the proposed project. These investigations could be such as boreholes, trial pits and penetration tests among other tests which seek to clarify technical issues and provide sufficient information for construction (A client’s guide to site investigation 2004). 6.1 Introduction Failure modes in building can be defined as a series of likely faults, mistuning, and wear that can arise in building systems (Otto et al n d). This result in poor performance compared to what was anticipated in the design, and if can be noted early enough can be mitigated though change of design or by monitoring the associated features on parameters (Otto et al n d). According to (Hansson 2011) failure could be as result of one or more errors such as poor erection principles, onsite alterations and poor design in relation to environmental actions. Different structures when exposed to fire behave in various ways and this behaviour is usually described in terms of fire resistance (Huang, Burges & Plank, n d). According to Martin Gillie school of Engineering and Electronics (Fire resistance of structures 5, n d), the kind of material used in construction and the way they respond to fire determine how the structure will behave under fire. The way these materials respond to fire can be categorised into four, in relation to their behaviour on fire (Fire resistance of structures 5, n d). First is the chemical changes which are specific to wood, second is physical changes that happen in concrete and masonry, third is mechanical that occur in steels since they are not likely to melt in normal fire. The fourth category is the materials that determine the rate of heat transfer (Fire resistance of structures 5, n d). 6.2 Behaviour of Materials under Fire Conditions According to Fire Resistance of Structure 5, the type of material used during construction and how they respond to fire indicates how the whole structure will respond to fire. Plastic for instance is largely used in buildings. The main setback for using plastic is that they are highly combustible and nothing can be added to make them non-combustible (Fire Resistance of Structure 5 n d). Steel on the other hand can be used as structural or reinforcing steel. In fire structural steel is considered more vulnerable compared to reinforcing steel; since reinforcing steel is usually encased in concrete which provides insulation therefore protecting the reinforcing steel from much lose in strength. Since steels are good conductor they are liable to heat up very fast in fire if not insulated (Fire Resistance of Structure 5 n d). Concrete has the best fire resistance features and is able to retain its strength even under very high temperatures although this is dependent on the thermal properties of the concrete. The siliceous concrete tend to spall due to high thermal conductivity, calcareous concrete are relatively stable while lightweight concrete is the most stable of all (Fire Resistance of Structure 5 n d). Wood on the other hand is combustible although it provides certain characteristics that allow being satisfactory in most building fires. One, it cannot be ignited easily, and second, it forms char after ignition. A combination of the low thermal conductivity and a layer of char, heavy wood sections can offer good fire resistance (Fire Resistance of Structure 5 n d). 6.3 Failure Modes Failure mode can be defined as the manner where a system failure arises. Failure is said to occur when a system does not work as intended by design (Failure mode and effect analysis in the cladding industry n d). First failure could raise a result of installation errors, this can due to the pressure to complete the job or build complex details without the right installation manuals. Second failure can result due to fabrication errors. Failure could also arise due to poor supervision, poor motivation or poor communication. Contractual pressures can also result to failure due to unrealistic tender and contracts (Failure mode and effect analysis in the cladding industry n d). According to Failure mode and effect analysis in the cladding industry, failure modes and effect analysis (FMEA) is a risk management tool and is used to first, recognize underlying and known failure modes, their causes and effects. Second FMEA are used to categorise failure modes to the rate of occurrence, severity and the likely hood of detection. Third FMEA are used to provide follow up for the problem and come up with a corrective measure. 6.4 Signs of collapse According to Field guide for building stabilization and shoring techniques (2011), there are a wide range of signs that would suggest a building will collapse among the forces of earthquakes, fires, wind, explosions, and impacts of high energy and if the structure is overloaded or has a defect. There are expected collapse hazards when the buildings are subjected to extreme conditions (Field guide for building stabilization and shoring techniques 2011). For instance in multi –story light frame buildings which are mostly wood framed and of box type, generally perform well in earth quakes. The common failure is the racking of the first story and the raked story is likely to ratchet in aftershocks. When subjected to explosion the walls are disconnected from floors which lead to total collapse. If under fire this type of buildings undergoes rapid combustion and they collapse. In case of high energy impact they collapse but the remaining structure is usually stable but in case of wind the damage is dependent on wind speed (Field guide for building stabilization and shoring techniques 2011). Another type of structure is a heavy steel frame building. When these types of structures are subjected to earth quakes, there is observed good performance of the frames, welded joints fractures and the diagonal bracing fails. In case of an explosion the walls and the floors are dislodged but the frames rarely collapse. When subjected to high temperatures this type of structures are destroyed impact areas. In case of wind frames are at low risk but glass may be destroyed leading to interior failure. In case of overload or a defect failure may occur during erection although members maintain integrity even with failures at the joints (Field guide for building stabilization and shoring techniques 2011). For the heavy floor buildings the hazards when exposed to earth quake leads to brittle failures of the columns and aftershocks may cause added collapse, falling and shifting hazards. In case of explosion poor performance of the slab and can lead to loss of stability of columns and collapse. Although these structures are good resistance to fire spalling of concrete may occur. For high energy impact the damage is only limited to area of impact (Field guide for building stabilization and shoring techniques 2011). References A client’s guide to site investigation 2004, Association of geotechnical and geo-environmental specialists Failure modes and effects analysis in the cladding industry (n d), Jeremy Layzell school of Architecture and civil Engineering, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY Field guide for building and stabilization and shoring techniques, 2011, Homeland security Science and Technology Fire resistance of structures 5 (n d), Martin Gillie School of Engineering and Electronics, The University of Edinburgh http://www.umist.ac.uk/departments/civil/research/structures/strucfire/ Hansson EF 2008, Engineering structures, Analysis of structural failures in timber structures: Typical causes and failure modes Huang Z, Burgess WI, & Plank JR (n d), Behaviour of reinforced concrete structures in fire Otto K, Eisenhower B, Neill ZO, Yuan S, Mezic I &Narayanan S (n d), Prioritizing building system energy failure modes using whole building energy simulation, Robust system and strategy, Tauton, MA university of Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA united technologies research center, East Hartford, CT Part 1 Principles of construction, chapter 1, An overview of the building Delivery process Technical bulletin 2008, Technical services information bureau, http://www.tsib.org The construction industry and Building team (n d), copyright FENC Read More

The final group that constitute a building team is comprised of building operatives who include general building operatives and specialist building operatives. The general building operatives use various items such as hand tools, power tools, mixers, dumper trucks and they off load materials at the site and generally assist in the craft work. The specialist building operative, carry out operations such as fixing ceiling and plant mechanical roof sheerer (The construction Industry and the Building Team p 6 n d). 5.3 Design Process According to Part 1 Principles of Construction, a building project can be delivered to the owner in five phases.

First is pre-design phase it’s also called the planning phase. It’s the most important part of the five phases and involves defining the function, purpose, scope, size and economics, and the completion or failure of the project depends on how this stage was defined. The second stage is the design phase and it’s usually after selecting the architect. Mostly the design team consists of architect, civil, mechanicals, electrical, plumbing and fire protection consultants. At times the architect may act as the senior design professional and to a certain degree as the owner’s representative.

The third stage is the pre-construction stage which starts when the construction drawings have been made and specifications made and ends up in selecting the construction team. The fourth stage is the construction phase which begins after the contract has been awarded and finally the last stage of the design process is the post construction phase. After the construction is complete the contractor asks the architect to conduct a completion inspection to confirm the work is over and by this the contractor implies the project is over and the owner can occupy the facility and begin to use it (Part 1Principles of Construction, chapter 1). 5.4 Site Investigation Site investigation is crucial for successful completion of a building project (A client’s guide to site investigation 2004).

Site investigation can be define as the overall process aimed to come up with information, analyse data, assessment and generate a report. The information gathered could be on the past or current land use, geology and ground water. Investigations are carried out to appraise the site for suitability of the proposed project. These investigations could be such as boreholes, trial pits and penetration tests among other tests which seek to clarify technical issues and provide sufficient information for construction (A client’s guide to site investigation 2004). 6.1 Introduction Failure modes in building can be defined as a series of likely faults, mistuning, and wear that can arise in building systems (Otto et al n d).

This result in poor performance compared to what was anticipated in the design, and if can be noted early enough can be mitigated though change of design or by monitoring the associated features on parameters (Otto et al n d). According to (Hansson 2011) failure could be as result of one or more errors such as poor erection principles, onsite alterations and poor design in relation to environmental actions. Different structures when exposed to fire behave in various ways and this behaviour is usually described in terms of fire resistance (Huang, Burges & Plank, n d).

According to Martin Gillie school of Engineering and Electronics (Fire resistance of structures 5, n d), the kind of material used in construction and the way they respond to fire determine how the structure will behave under fire. The way these materials respond to fire can be categorised into four, in relation to their behaviour on fire (Fire resistance of structures 5, n d). First is the chemical changes which are specific to wood, second is physical changes that happen in concrete and masonry, third is mechanical that occur in steels since they are not likely to melt in normal fire.

The fourth category is the materials that determine the rate of heat transfer (Fire resistance of structures 5, n d). 6.

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