This s
tudy examines
the local geological condi
tions and soil s
truc
ture as possible causes of
the collapse of
the Zümrü
t Building
2 February 2004. This ca
tas
trophe resul
ted in 92 fa
tali
ties and 35 injuries. This s
tudy also examines o
ther views which claim
weak soil s
truc
ture, elas
tic and consolida
tion se
ttlemen
t of soil and excessive groundwa
ter ex
trac
tion as well as subsidence
resul
ting from
the underground sil
t erosion as possible fac
tors. Zümrü
t Building was cons
truc
ted on normally consolida
ted,
low plas
tici
ty clay. The underground wa
ter
table was 30 m in dep
th. The in
ternal fric
tion angle of soil was 8°–30°, i
ts cohesion
was be
tween 34 and 127 kN/m&l
t;sup&g
t;2&l
t;/sup&g
t; and s
tandard pene
tra
tion
tes
t numbers varied be
tween 11 and 50. The underground wa
ter level benea
th Zümrü
t Building had risen
4.5 m since i
ts cons
truc
tion. Therefore
the claim
tha
t subsidence resul
ting from
the decrease of underground wa
ter level con
tribu
ted
to
the collapse is incorrec
t. Secondly
the se
ttlemen
t, resul
ting from
the filling up of
the pores crea
ted by
the sil
t receding
wi
th
the underground wa
ter, was 4.4 mm in
to
tal, and a
ttribu
ting
this as
the primary cause of
the collapse is also incorrec
t.
Soil proper
ties, in si
tu and labora
tory
tes
t resul
ts showed
tha
t the exis
ting and/or expec
ted se
ttlemen
t and
the differen
tial
ground se
ttlemen
t in
the Zümrü
t building vicini
ty had
the po
ten
tial
to cause s
truc
tural damage. The
tensile s
tresses caused
by differen
tial se
ttlemen
ts recorded here are
though
t to be an indica
tor, bu
t no
t the main cause con
tribu
ting
to
the collapse
of
the building. The Zümrü
t Building collapse was due
to several compounding mis
takes during
the cons
truc
tion phase. These
were geo
technical and o
ther projec
t faul
ts and
the use of low quali
ty cons
truc
tion ma
terials. The resul
ting ca
tas
trophe caused
92 fa
tali
ties, 35 injuries and a ma
terial loss of approxima
tely US$7 million.
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