Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities

Failure of a building or its components usually means that it is performing in an unsatisfactory way. Investigation of such a failure often uncovers deterioration or other problems with the building or component materials. Deterioration can mean loss of strength, disintegration, or corrosion of some part of the structure. Discovering the cause of such deterioration may involve removing representative samples or complete systems and testing them in the laboratory. There are a wide variety of laboratory tests available to the investigator. This forum summarizes some of the more common ones used as part of a failure investigation.

High wind events such as hurricanes and storms often cause severe damage to crest-fixed thin steel roof claddings. Past research on wind damage has shown that low cycle fatigue cracking of steel roof sheeting around the fastener holes has been the reason for the premature pull-through failures of roof claddings under fluctuating wind forces. Such a situation will be at its worst if the roof sheeting is already split at the fastener holes. An inspection of trapezoidal steel roofs has shown that roofing has been split in the transverse direction due to overtightening of screw fasteners accidental or caused by poor workmanship. Once split, even slightly, the roofing can survive only a few cycles of wind uplift loading. Therefore an investigation using laboratory experiments and finite element analyses was carried out to study the splitting behavior of two commonly used high tensile steel trapezoidal roof claddings. The analytical and experimental results agree reasonably well and present a good understanding of the splitting behavior of trapezoidal roof claddings. This paper presents the details of this investigation and the results.

This paper develops probabilistic and human reliability models to estimate the probability of structural collapse (system risk) during the construction of typical multistory reinforced-concrete buildings in the presence of human error. Results obtained from the human reliability analysis suggest that errors related to concrete cover and concreting workmanship are more detrimental to system risk than any other errors. Errors related to reinforcement area have a minor effect on system risk, provided that the existing effectiveness of engineering inspections is maintained. The results also show that errors related to installation of steel shores/reshores do not significantly affect the system risk.

The Ohio State University (OSU) initiated this study in response to campus parking garage crime that persisted at an unacceptably high level in spite of campus-wide efforts to reduce crime. The writers combined crime statistics gathered by the OSU Police Department with results of an on-site survey to model parking using Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles. The goal of the study was a group of CPTED-based design changes intended to create an environment that would deter parking garage crime. The analysis included factors such as lighting, visibility, garage color, location of entrances and exits, and design of elevators and stairways. The evaluation showed that lighting was the most significant factors in users’ perception of parking garage safety. As a result of this study, OSU implemented the recommended CPTED improvements. In the 2 years following the implementation of CPTED improvements, the average annual incidence of crime in the parking garage where the CPTED improvements had been made fell by more than half of the average annual incidence of crime in that same garage for the four years before the improvements were made.

A parametric study was conducted using the finite-element rigid pavement program ISLAB2000. For cracks that utilize aggregate interlock as the sole means of load transfer, the integrity of the cracks was initially modeled using the aggregate interlock factor. A subsequent analysis was then performed on the same cracks for the case where both dowel bars and aggregate interlock were available for load transfer purposes. The latter scenario represents the case where dowel bar retrofitting (DBR) has been performed on the cracks. In both cases, the deflection load transfer efficiency and critical slab tensile stresses were computed in order to examine the immediate theoretical benefits of the dowel bars. The validity of these theoretical benefits was tested using data from falling-weight deflectometer testing on DBR sites in both Michigan and Washington. It was found that installation of dowel bars did not increase the load transfer efficiency for cracks that had levels greater than 89–95%, depending on pavement parameters. When temperature gradients were not considered, little change in tensile stress due to a load at the crack was exhibited when DBR was performed on cracks that had load transfer efficiency levels less than 70–80%.

Government authorities are responsible for managing their available budget so that they gain maximum benefit. Therefore, they must make intelligent decisions as to which projects will be funded and the degree of funding. Dynamic programming (DP), integer programming (IP), and greedy heuristic (GH) approaches have been applied to optimize a two-year budget allocation for repainting steel bridges in Indiana. The optimal solution and the objective function values resulting from application of DP, IP, and GH are similar. The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) divides Indiana into six districts. The results show that District 1 has the highest budget allocation percentage (28%). It has the lowest percent in the first year and the highest percent in the second year. District 2 has the lowest percentage (11%). A sensitivity analysis has been completed to show the potential alternative solutions that assist INDOT decision makers in solving their budget allocation problems.

This paper reports the bridge damage in the Chi Chi earthquake. Damage to bridge structures may occur in the superstructure, the substructure, or the approaches. Typical types of damage are discussed and illustrated in this paper. A review of the design specifications in Taiwan is also presented to give the background on the seismic design of highway bridges in Taiwan.

On January 25, 1971, two thirds of a 16-story apartment building collapsed while under construction at 2000 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts. Four workers died after a failure on the roof instigated a progressive collapse all the way to the basement, where the men were found. Fortunately, the collapse occurred slowly enough for most of the other workers to run to safety. An investigation, conducted by a commission assembled by the Mayor of Boston, painted a picture of a troubled project, with considerable confusion about responsibility for structural safety. The surviving workers’ descriptions of the failure provide a textbook definition of punching shear. Low concrete strength due to inadequate protection against cold weather contributed to low punching shear strength of the flat slab. Inspection, quality control, planning, and supervision were for all practical purposes absent from the project. This paper investigates the numerous causes and lessons learned of this structural failure. Two similar cases are also reviewed.