Abstract
This paper summarizes the different activities undertaken in order to identify the main causes of the collapse of the Space Building, a 27-story reinforced concrete framed building in Medellín, Colombia. Site investigations, field and laboratory tests, and a detailed analytical work including structural analysis under different considerations were carried out. The main cause of the collapse was associated with the deficient structural capacities of the columns of the building in relation to the dead and service loads imposed at the time of the collapse. The occurrence of high differential settlements, the high compressive stresses in main columns, the repair works that were carried out minutes before the collapse, and the probable shear failure of beams and compressive failure of partitions walls during repair works were identified as probable secondary causes and detonating factors of the building collapse. The authors of this investigation considered that if the building had been designed adequately using the Colombian building design codes available at that time, it would not have collapsed, even if most of the aforementioned detonating events had occurred.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are thankful to the Alcaldía de Medellín, Disaster Risk Management Administrative Department (DAGRD) for providing funds to the Material and Civil Works Research Center (CIMOC) from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia) for developing this research project.
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Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 32 • Issue 3 • June 2018
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 25, 2017
Accepted: Oct 17, 2017
Published online: Feb 16, 2018
Published in print: Jun 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Jul 16, 2018
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