In 1975, an arena was built in the city of Hartford, Connecticut. The arena was designed to hold 12,500 people and showcase many different events. From sports events to concerts and other events. However, in 1978, having been open for only 3 years, the stadiums roof suddenly collapsed due to a snowstorm. It took less than 5 inches of snow, 4.8 to be exact, to bring down the roof. Lucky it was early in the morning around 4 am and no one was hurt, however the incident had occurred a few hours earlier when a college basketball game was being held. The results could have been a disastrous. The specifications stated that the roof would be able to hold more than what had occurred under harsher conditions. But the questions was why it didn’t and who …show more content…
As well as who should be held responsible for the roof collapse. The firm of Lev Zetlin Associates was hire to do an investigation of what caused the roof to collapse. The firm’s results were that the exterior top chord compression members on the east and west faces were overloaded by as much as 852%, the exterior top chord compression members on the south and north faces were overloaded by as much as 213%, the interior top chord compression members in the east–west direction were overloaded by as much as 72%. In short the designs were not close to what was originally designed. There were other differences in the weight of the frame. It was designed for 18 pounds per square foot. When in reality it was actually 23 pounds per square foot. This was stated to be about a 20% difference. Is was stated that this design was so heavily relied on computer software aid or help, rather than taking the time to work out by hand and double check with the …show more content…
Researching to see if there are finished examples that may be similar to what is being designed would be helpful. It won’t be the exact same thing but there may be some parts that would be comparable. You may also find that the design you are contemplating has been attempted and if problems arose with that project, then you would know what to expect and possibly how to avoid them in your project. Also, making sure that all of the know variables are available. Every project is different and the variables specific for that project need to be known. What kind of weather conditions will the design be under, how much force, safety, and other factors are
In the competition known as Science Olympiad, there is an event build called “Boomilevers.” This event is comprised of building a structure to be attached on one side to a wall and bear the maximum weight possible on the other side, while the structure itself weighs as little as possible. The Boomilever is a long standing Olympiad Event and requires acute attention to detail and a critical mind in architecture in order to achieve the maximum efficiency score possible. There are many limitations and guidelines set forth in the Olympiad rules, defining how tall and long the boomilever must be and how the boomilever must attach to the wall. This leads to construction much like a real life situation, where resources must be utilized efficiently.
The failure tragically occurred on the night of the dance party, with the added weight of all of the partygoers proving too much for the supporting bolts to handle. At 7:05 P.M. one of the upper walkway’s supporting bolts failed causing the rest of the connections to break and “unzip” (Chronology). The upper walkway crashed onto the lower walkway causing both to fall onto the lobby floor below. Numerous key factors are often cited as having left the construction project vulnerable to such fatal design flaws.
The I-35 Bridge collapse in 2007 was not the result of a single safety precaution being overlooked; it was primarily due to a miscalculation by the original design team, Sverdrup & Parcel and Associates. While the accountability can be placed on Sverdrup & Parcel and Associates, the only way to learn from such disasters is to delve deeper into the root cause and determine why this minute, yet extremely important, detail was overlooked for over 40 years.
During a party in the lobby of a Hyatt Regency Hotel located in Kansas City, Missouri, the night of July 17th 1981, two suspended walkways collapsed after the connections holding them up to the ceiling failed. The box beams separated from the ceiling rods because the beams that rested on the supporting rods nuts and washers were malformed and could not hold the additional weight of the party-goers. The fourth floor walkway fell first and crashed into the second story walkway on the way down, bringing it along for the drop down onto the crowded main atrium below. Perhaps fortunately, the third floor walkway had been built away from the other two to offset them, thus remained connected and kept additional wreckage from further hurting the hotel guests. However, this incident is still considered one of America’s “most devastat...
Gunel, M. Halis. Ilgin H. Emre. "A proposal for the classification of structural systems of tall buildings" Building
But (page 67)”Yet no one had experience in fireproofing those webbed trusses”.The port authority had an event where small fires would happen in february 1975 had caused parts of the floors to buckle and the fire damaged floors in the 9th to the 16th floor, but before this event in 1969 also in this same year they removed the order that the towers should be able to withstand 2-3 hours of fire, depending on the area but before this was set in place The port authority ordered to have the trussed sprayed with a half inch of fireproofing but no one can say why. The question on this order is “would it be possible to apply the mineral to such skinny parts and make it stick to the buildings that would be in constant motion from the wind? Again, the records are bereft of any
Focus shall be on utilizing pre-production tools while developing the prototypes. Actual material, wherever possible, shall be used in the development of prototypes rather than having substituted parts. Make the prototypes as closer as possible to actual outputs.
The highest raised building was a 3,000-tons. It was raised 5ft. off the ground with jacks, and then fill was pumped underneath the buildings. The storm that created all this destruction, left a long track to be remembered
These suffered the most damage, with four of the buildings collapsing completely. Most of the damage was caused by the severe shaking and not by seismic lift. This is where most lives were lost, with approximately 44 of the total 65 deaths that occurred as a result of the earthquake. Most of the reinforced concrete buildings constructed after 1933 withstood the shaking, but in 1972 a resolution was passed and the remainder of the buildings were abandoned, then later demolished, and the site turned
As a result of poor building constructions and running heavy equipped machineries, despite not being designed for industrial use contributed to the collapse of this eight-storey building, two floors of which were added illegally. Besides that, employees of the garment factories were forced to work by the owners even after discovering cracks on the exterior walls of the building. The employees were clearly under poor working conditions.
However, on June 23, 2012, the mall has been afflicting by structural problems and leaks. It has been found that there has a part of structural failure with the dimension of 12m x 24m segment from the rooftop parking deck collapsed, causes the crash from the upper-level till the ground floor of the complex. Based, on the report, the total victims from the collapse are more than 20 people where two people were dead and twenty-two people were injured. It has been decided to demolish the building based on the investigation conducted and lawsuit action towards the incident.
The EIFS, a non-load-bearing wall assembly consists of a layer of expanded polystyrene foam adhered to gypsum sheathing. The polystyrene and polyurethane portions of the EIFS panels and trim burned along the building’s parapet, and melting foam ran down the exterior edge of the hotel, starting fires in other EIFS panels. As the fire spread from the center of the west and south wings of the hotel, it also began to burn downward, exposing the windows of the suites on the 32nd floor. When heat caused several windows on the 32nd floor to fail, flames spread into the building. In several of the suites, sprinklers operated, confining the interior fires and allowing suppression forces to extinguish them.
First, the integrity of the stage was evaluated and it was discovered that the company who provided the stage advised that it not be used in winds exceeding 25mph. The storm produced winds in excess of 60mph (Crandall, et al., 2014). It was also uncovered that there are few regulations or codes which apply to temporary structures, such as the concert stage in Indiana and across the United States. Upon discovering that the stage was not subject to much scrutiny, the Indiana State Fair hired an International Engineering firm to investigate the cause of the stage’s collapse (Crandall, et al., 2014). It was determined that the stage was not adequately designed, built, or inspected thus causing it’s integrity to be challenged and unable to withstand winds exceeding 43mph (Crandall, et al.,
the steps and procedures you would need to take to properly design it. First thing you would need
The first and most crucial step is to create a solid plan. Plan should include the techniques, tools and data that are going to used in the project. The responsibilities of all the members should be distributed at this step. The utilization of resources and budgeting of the project should be done here. Management tools such as probability and Impact Matrix, FMEA are useful at this point.