Miami Building Collapse Could Profoundly Change Engineering

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 15:15:00 GMT
Scientific American - Technology

To pin down causes, investigators will gather original design drawings, test remains of the building...

Last week's deadly collapse of a 12-story oceanfront condominium in a small town on the same barrier island as Miami Beach, Fla., is raising concerns among structural engineers and designers about how to prevent future building failures.

Nearly all the building stock in the U.S. is not newly designed.

These buildings may face loads and other threats that designers did not anticipate, including those linked to climate change.

Until the conclusion of rescue operations and likely multiple investigations into what caused the Surfside collapse, structural engineers, leaders and policy makers may have to wait for useful insights into how to modify designs and building codes to prevent similar future tragedies.

To learn more about the long-term significance of the Champlain Towers South disaster for building designers, Scientific American spoke with structural engineer Benjamin W. Schafer, a professor of civil and systems engineering and director of the Ralph S. O'Connor Sustainable Energy Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

As the U.S. building stock continues to age, might we see a rise in the number and severity of events like the Surfside building collapse?

In 2017 the Grenfell Tower fire in London spread to the building's facade and then around the whole building.

How are investigations into a large building collapse such as this one conducted?

Then they will assess the actual condition of the building at the time of collapse.

Investigators will then probably run a modern computer simulation on the building to see how well it withstands demands put on it against the codes in place at the time of design.

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