Abstract:
The investigation in this report, focuses on the failure assessment of reinforced concrete buildings under gross error (human error) relating to design and construction. The parameters used in the structural appraisal were obtained by carrying out structural analysis and design on a typical reinforced concrete building as-built, and a redesign of the building using Finite Element Technique (FET) was also performed. Parameters relating to material strength, geometry and loading were treated as random variables for the purpose of predicting safety levels associated with the as-built and the redesigned buildings. The implied risks for the as-built and proposed redesign were then compared. The as-constructed safety appraisal gave an average safety index of 4.45 for slabs, which is above the target value of 3.7 according to the general principles on the reliability of structures stated in ISO 2394-1998. However, the average safety indices for beams and columns are 0.65 and 1.97 respectively, and this signifies the worrisome consequence of human errors in reinforced concrete buildings. The implied safety levels for the redesigned building highlight sufficient improvement on the performance of the building
