TY - JOUR
T1 - Numerical investigation of the failure of a building in Shanghai, China
AU - Chai, Jinchun
AU - Shen, Shuilong
AU - Ding, Wenqi
AU - Zhu, Hehua
AU - Carter, John
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - The overturning failure of a 13 storey residential building in Shanghai, China, has been investigated by plane strain finite element analysis (FEA). The results of the FEA indicate that ultimate failure of the building was probably initiated by the formation of tensile cracking in the reinforced concrete piles located under the side of the building adjacent to an excavation. This eventually led to complete structural failure of the piles located along the excavation side, which probably caused further settlement of the building, leading eventually to a toppling failure resulting in overturning of the entire building. Excessive tensile stress in the piles was probably caused by the combination of excavation of soil at one side of the building and the temporary dumping of the excavated soil on the opposite side of the building. It is likely that the effect of temporary dumping of the excavated soil adjacent to the building was either not considered or not properly taken into account in the foundation design nor the construction operations. A simple but important lesson to be draw from this failure is the need for engineers who design foundations in soft soil regions to consider not only the final loading conditions, but also any temporary and transient loading conditions during the construction process.
AB - The overturning failure of a 13 storey residential building in Shanghai, China, has been investigated by plane strain finite element analysis (FEA). The results of the FEA indicate that ultimate failure of the building was probably initiated by the formation of tensile cracking in the reinforced concrete piles located under the side of the building adjacent to an excavation. This eventually led to complete structural failure of the piles located along the excavation side, which probably caused further settlement of the building, leading eventually to a toppling failure resulting in overturning of the entire building. Excessive tensile stress in the piles was probably caused by the combination of excavation of soil at one side of the building and the temporary dumping of the excavated soil on the opposite side of the building. It is likely that the effect of temporary dumping of the excavated soil adjacent to the building was either not considered or not properly taken into account in the foundation design nor the construction operations. A simple but important lesson to be draw from this failure is the need for engineers who design foundations in soft soil regions to consider not only the final loading conditions, but also any temporary and transient loading conditions during the construction process.
KW - construction industry
KW - excavations
KW - pile foundations
KW - residential buildings
UR - http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/uws:31267
U2 - 10.1016/j.compgeo.2013.10.001
DO - 10.1016/j.compgeo.2013.10.001
M3 - Article
SN - 0266-352X
VL - 55
SP - 482
EP - 493
JO - Computers and Geotechnics
JF - Computers and Geotechnics
ER -