17 Story Building in Taiwan Collapses post 6.4 magnitude earthquake 1

[EZBuilding]

Both links include some harrrowing pictures

[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/05/asia/taiwan-earthquake/index.html
[/url]
[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35508475[/url]

 

[JAE]

Is it just me or shouldn't there be some kind of rebar sticking out of the bottom of this building which is laying sideways?

very odd don't you think...

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[itsmoked]

Isn't the rebar just the cross-floor stuff for that particular floor?

I'm amazed how most of the building stayed.... assembled.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[bimr]

Hard to tell from the picture, but it appears that the picture shows the building roof.

 

[VEBill]

BBC reports that the building's concrete was "reinforced" (not exactly the correct word) with tin cans and styrofoam. Visible at a place where it cracked.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35515749

Perhaps it was not a load bearing wall.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

Holy crap, the sheer amount of space taken up by those cans and styrofoam is astonishing! How the weight of the building itself didn't cause those walls to collapse is surprising.

This is a case where the guilty parties should be slowly killed with a butter knife.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[itsmoked]

No no Dan. You put them in concrete rubble where they can almost get out... And, where they can almost reach a glass of water.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[BUGGAR]

We use cardboard voids in our concrete, they use cooking oil cans. And we also embed foam plastic in our concrete (for marine floats).

 

[msquared48]

Expansive clays?

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)

 

[Trenno]

I wonder what the footing system consisted of? Over-estimate of the dead weight of the structure is the over-turning calcs?

 

[bimr]

3D construct of the Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building:

http://mashable.com/2016/02/06/taiw...rmed-into-virtual-reality-model/#rcCEPs7adPqR

 

[MacGyverS2000]

Can someone explain to me the legitimate purpose(s) of filling out a wall with displacement material (e.g., styrofoam)? Savings in concrete can be fantastic, I imagine, but then why not create two separate walls to begin with... or would it generally be too cost-prohibitive to create them separately? If so, why not just make the wall thinner in the first place?

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[KENAT]

I'd think wall not just being thinner might have something to do with 'I' where as local voids with structure around them may help maximize 'I' for given mass.

One report mentioned the age of the building meant it had been built before stricter codes were introduced in the wake of another strong quake.

We have a vendor based in that city, out main contact is OK but doesn't know yet about his colleagues as they are out on break for Chinese new year, I'm hoping & praying for the best.

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[bimr]

It is probably more common in the deck slabs not the walls. Voided biaxial slabs are reinforced concrete slabs in which voids are installed to reduce the amount of concrete.

The main problem with concrete construction is the weight, which limits the span length. Research in the use of reinforced concrete in buildings looks at reducing the weight, either by reducing the weight or overcoming the weakness in tension. The voids are used to reduce weight.

The use of voids is common in prefabricated concrete deck slabs:

 

[Sawbux]

Cans probably used in similar manner as we have used "waffle slabs", except we pull out the "cans" and reuse them. Reduce weight and keep slab depth for strength.

 

[boo1]

the article said the "tin cans were apparently used as filler inside some of the concrete beams"

 

[allgoodnamestaken]

Ya but you can't trust articles to know what they're talking about. Someone could see cans embedded in concrete and not recognize them as a plug for a hollowcore slab, and then mention "tin cans used as filler".

Sadly the media are not particularly good at their job. I know of several events of which I have personal knowledge where the reporting had very little to do with what actually happened. Take everything they say with a grain of salt, and the more political or technical the topic, the less you believe without evidence.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

Did you look at the article pics, allgood? They were tin cans...

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[allgoodnamestaken]

I saw the image but I don't know where those cans were in the structure, and if they were used to block off voids before a pour and were left in, or if they were in a wall, or what. I'm not saying its good they were there, I'm saying that I'm withholding judgement and not trusting the BBC to report anything correctly.

 

[VEBill]

There are plenty of pictures online showing various aspects and various angles. This one (below) shows a fair amount of thickness on one side of the cans. But who knows...

Should this idle speculative discussion be terminated until the final-formal report is issued?