Numerical investigation of the failure of a building in Shanghai, China

Jinchun Chai, Shuilong Shen, Wenqi Ding, Hehua Zhu, John Carter

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    81 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    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.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)482-493
    Number of pages12
    JournalComputers and Geotechnics
    Volume55
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2014

    Keywords

    • construction industry
    • excavations
    • pile foundations
    • residential buildings

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