Analyze and review general building design and construction methods Research Paper

Analyze and review general building design and construction methods and explain the types of collapses that may occur. Explain h - Research Paper Example Which review the issues and causes associated to it and then suggest a change in the building design or a recommendation in alteration is building codes. The organization of this paper is done very similar to the steps taken in the production and improvement process of building codes and reviews of field problem, the paper will focus on the following steps, 1. Causes of collapses of buildings 2. General building design and Construction types 3. Progressive Collapse Analysis and Fire-Induced Progressive Collapse 4. Impact and modification of Fire-Induced collapse on Building Codes Causes of collapses of buildings In order to diagnose a problem and its solution we first need to understand that from where the problem starts and initiates and what its causes are. There is a wide range of causes which lead to the collapse of the buildings which include bad design in which the engineers and designer are responsible for erroneous theories, improper choice of materials or misunderstanding of their properties and etc. Then comes the faulty construction as the major cause of collapse, it may occur by weak supervision and corruption of by the contractor, use of inferior quality of steel and other material. Then another cause of failure of the structure is Foundation Failure in which there is liquefaction of soil or excessive settlement which was not forecasted in geotechnical investigation made before construction of the facility. Then unexpected failure modes is also one of the emerging reason of failures of structures, this is due to the fact that we are having a new type of structural system every day, which might be architecturally sound but it is very unstable as a structure and the lack of systems to analyze these systems are not yet developed, so there might be a failure by an unknown reason. Lastly but most important cause of failure is the Extraordinary or accidental Loadings, this has caused more catastrophes more than any other. These loading include the wind l oads, exceptional earthquakes and impact of fire on structures. The codes have been really successful in developing standards and design procedures to cater to the problem such as earth quakes and hurricanes and broad research has been done in these areas, but lesser emphasis were been made on fire loading or fire induced collapse while the formulation of revised codes until the 9/11 event which caused a complete collapse of World Trade centre. Partly the reason for this was that the rare occurrence of fire in structures, even lesser forensic analysis of building and only a very few incidents were reported and recorded. The second major reason for this was that there were only a very few complete collapse of the structures due to fire. The Historical Survey of Multi-Story Building Collapses Due to Fire made by Hughes Associates, Inc , came to a conclusion that (Beitel, 2005) *1,only a data of 22 buildings(appendix 1) which had fire was available, and out of those only 6 buildings wa s higher than 21 stories. The World Trade Center case study made a clear to the world and especially the designer and engineers that fire poses more danger to multistory building and its inhabitants. Due to these facts there is a major change seen in the fire protection of buildings now and NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) has come up with new standards and codes for a better. General Building Design & Construction Types According to National Fire Prot