Newsletter # 012 – 2020
~ 28 Jan 2020
Why buy sensitive items like
PC STRANDS
from local Dubai Producer.
- By Sanjay A, GSS – Technical Director
Owing to growing concerns of
safety and to prevent mishaps
owing to use of sub-standard
quality goods specifically going
into Construction – the Abu Dhabi
and Dubai Govt introduced
mandatory licensing for several
sensitive building materials.
PC Strand is one such item and is
under mandatory control of DCL.
World over PC Strand is under
mandatory control of respective
Governments.
In a recent clarification provided
by vide its email dated 15-AUG-
2019 Dubai Central Laboratory
(DCL) clarified that despite a
product being approved by DCL
– in the rare event of any product
failure, it is the ultimately the
responsibility of both the
Consultant and Main contractors.
(refer Annexure 1)
Prompted by the above
clarification, I was asked to write
this news letter.
While pondering over, I decided
to first compile some of the
serious failures that have been
witnessed over – a past few years
– world over…
GulfSteelStrands.com
Chief causes
The causes of building collapse
can be classified under certain
heads as:
- Bad Design
- Faulty Construction
- Sub standard quality of Building
Materials.
- Foundation Failure
- Extraordinary Loads
- Unexpected Failure Modes
- Corruption amongst sub-
contractors in the Middle Eastern
Economies
- Corruption amongst Govt
Regulators – (especially rampant in
3rd world countries.)
- Combination of Causes
As engineering excels, bad
designing, now-a-days is almost
negligible.
The major cause of failure is
contributed due to sub-standard
quality of building materials and
corruption within the Sub
Contractor community – who
mainly end up using cheap
Construction material.
Construction workmanship – is
also quite up to the mark as this
is often monitored by Regulatory
Authorities and Consultants.
The use of cheap imported sub
standard building materials is
often deceptive looking and looks
almost the same as high quality
goods normally produced by local
producers.
The chief reason, why a local
producer will desist from
producing sub standard goods is
the fear of law – and because in
event of any mishap the local
producer is always easily available
to the Law enforcing Authorities.
،‫ﻋﻧدﻣﺎ ﯾﺧطﺄ اﻟطﺑﯾب اﻟﺟراح ﻣرة‬
‫ وﻟﻛن‬...‫ﻓﺧطﺄه ﻗد ﯾﻘﺗل ﻣرﯾﺿﮫ‬
‫ ﻓﺧطﺄه‬،‫ﻋﻧدﻣﺎ ﯾﺧطﺄ اﻟﻣﮭﻧدس ﻣرة‬
‫ﯾﻘﺗل اﻟﻣﺋﺎت‬.
When a Surgeon commits a
mistake, the mistake may cost
one life.
But when an Engineer commits a
mistake, the mistake may take
100s of lives.
Hence the cheap sub standard
goods are often made in
production centers far off the
consumption centers…
Out of this concern … many
countries like USA and EU have
now made mandatory to source
sensitive items from local
producers. Most of important
Bridge and other important
construction do not permit use of
sensitive classified construction
materials such as the PC Strands
to be imported from China or any
other country.
Even within Dubai Emirate, so
far, the author has so far not seen
the Road Transport Authority
(RTA) allowing use of cheaper PC
Strands coming from China or 3rd
countries.
Within Abu Dhabi Emirate, the
local Regulators have been quite
encouragive of sourcing sensitive
building materials from Producers
situated within 500 kms of Abu
Dhabi. (Refer SM-10 of Estidama
Procedures). ESTIDAMA* is a
building design methodology for
constructing and operating
buildings and communities more
sustainable. The program is a key
aspect of the "Abu Dhabi Vision
2030" drive to build the Abu
Dhabi Emirate according to
innovative green standards.
*"Estidama" is the Arabic word for
sustainability.
Page # 1 of 8
Brief of the paper authored by Dr.
N.Ahzhar, Dr. NA Karim, Dr. SH Hasan,
and Dr. J Eman presented at the 2nd
International Building Conference 2011.
After a thorough painstaking
research of various Building
failures - concluded that the sub
standard quality of construction
material and the corruption
appertained thereto – are the two
most common factors that lead
building defects and failures.
Corruption: Corruption within the
construction industry is a complex
and sensitive issue. It is generally
assumed that it occurs but the
form and scale of corruption is by
its nature difficult to establish.
As noticed mostly, the chief
source of corruption is by the
Sub-Contractors – not the
consultants or the main
contractors. The inducement to
use cheaper deceptive appearing
to be complying with the
specifications is very strong
amongst the Sub-Contractors.
For contribution factors to
building defects and failures, the
highest rated factor is construction
materials with the highest value
0.982. Construction material is an
important because the materials
being used in construction will
determine the behavior of the
structure and resulted in any types
of failures or defects in the future.
In most cases, the effects of using
low quality materials do not take
place in a year or two, but
normally after many years. The
effects of sub standard quality
materials slowly began to spread
like a cancer in the concrete.
GulfSteelStrands.com
Rank of Relative Index for Common Contribution Factors to Building Defects and Failures
Governing Factors Relative Index
1 - Construction Materials 0.982
2 - Faulty During Construction 0.923
3 - Corruption 0.827
4 - Lack of Correct Supervision 0.808
“Most of the times the usage of Reducing the quality of materials
materials is now-a-days and also the cost seem to have a
according to specification but it
hidden agenda among the sub-
is the consequence from
contractors involved.
irresponsible parties who
intentionally reduce the quality
in order to reduce the cost. Since the effects of
sub-standard quality Building
materials are normally evident
The specifications- per se- do
after 15-20 years, the sub-
not take care of the
manufacturing processes but contractors being the last ones in
the chain, are strongly induced to
merely describes the properties
for the materials. use cheap building materials
produced mainly in China and
The properties of the material is elsewhere as they are quite away
always found in accordance to from the Law once mishaps occur.
the specification but the
specification no way ensures its In most cases, the Owners end up
long term performance under paying the full costs of so-called
corrosive concrete in which PC best quality Building materials
Strands go into…. This and services but the most of the
anamoly allows clandenstine Sub-Contractors ended up using
producers to sacrifice quality. deceptive cheap quality.
Hence all the more
reason for PC Strands to
be sourced locally
ensuring Strands are Bibliography:
Acid Pickled and with
[1] Michael S.Poles. What is Construction
low Chrome content. Defect? Retrieved at 15 Sept 2008, from
http://www.mmgroup.com.
The analogy is simple. Would [2] Robert T.Ratay (2005). Structural
you prefer to buy cheaper Condition Assessment, Survey and Assessment
Saline water coming from of Structural Conditions, (p.127- 495)
China or expensive saline water
[3] Brown, Robert Wade. Practical Foundation
from a local UAE producer? Engineering Handbook (2nd Edition).
[4] The Chartered Institute of Building.
In case of any mishap, the
Corruption in Construction Industry. Retrieved
local production facility is more at ^ Julai 2008 from http://www.ciob.org.uk
available. Because it is local,
the producers have no other
option but to be very rigid with
its quality and always be the
best”
Page # 2 of 8

Ronan Point, London, England
In East London, on May 16, 1968, a
single match triggered the collapse of an
entire corner of this massive 22- story
building when 56-year-old Ivy Hodge,
on the 18th floor, lit it to make herself a
cup of tea. The spark from the match
was enough for a blast of gas explosion
to tear apart the joints connecting the
walls to the floor and she found herself
on the ground in a not so pretty state.
The load-bearing walls had come apart,
leaving the four apartments above her
without any kind of structural support.
What next? Well, one by one, they came
tumbling down, tearing through the
floors below like falling dominoes. At
the end an entire corner of the newly
constructed building lay in shambles.
When Ronan Point crashed, 260 people
were in residence, of whom four were
killed in the disaster, while 17 were
injured. Ivy Hodge survived!
Public confidence in high-rise tower
buildings was badly shaken.
GulfSteelStrands.com
Failure Cause: What caused this huge
fall and that too by a not so big gas
ignition?
The tower was constructed of precast
concrete. Failure of the single panel
caused one entire corner of the building
to collapse. The panel was able to be
blown out because there was
insufficient PC Reinforcement Steel
passing between the panels. This also
meant that the loads carried by the panel
could not be redistributed to other
adjacent panels, since there was no
route for the forces to follow. Collapse
was imminent.
Aftermath & Lessons Learnt:
'Tie them well' is the lesson learnt.
Reinforcements reinforce! Use them as
much as needed.
As a result of the collapse, building
regulations were overhauled to prevent
disproportionate collapse. The under-
standing of precast concrete detailing
was greatly advanced.
Based on this many similar buildings
were altered or demolished.
Highland Towers, Selangor, Malaysia
December 11, 1993, the time 1:35 pm, a
landslide with the force of 200 jumbo
jets slams into the foundations of Block
One of the Highland Towers apartment
complex. Eyewitnesses describe
watching the building fall in “slow
motion,” followed by an eerie
“deafening silence.”
Failure Cause: The Highland Towers
complex with three 12-story residential
buildings built at the base of steep hill
just outside of Malaysia's capital city,
Kuala Lumpur, had serious problems:
- The retaining walls and
drainage system had been poorly
designed and badly maintained.
- The situation aggravated when
another development company
began construction on a ridge just
above Highland Towers. The land
was stripped and exposed to
erosion, and some of the drainage
pipes were blocked with tree
branches.
- Ten days of non-stop rain
exerted enormous pressure on the
pipes causing the pipes to burst
along various points on the hill.
The water content of the soil rose to
dangerous levels.
- Eventually, a landslip took
down a large retaining wall.
One hundred thousand square meters of
mud slid into Block One, carrying it
forward and eventually snapping it.
Three people were pulled out alive on
the first day.
In the aftermath, 48 bodies were
recovered.
Block two and block three were
evacuated and stand empty to this day,
like grim, overgrown tombstones.
Lesson Learnt:
Retaining walls take a lot of force and
need to be adequately designed.
Retaining walls badly designed coupled
with eventual soil erosion were enough
to initiate the landslip with water only
compounding the mishap.
Page # 3 of 8

Skyline Plaza, Virginia, USA
On March 2, 1973, one of the Sky-line
Plaza complex's towering apartment
buildings collapsed, leaving where it
once stood, a huge cloud of dust and
debris.
Construction hadn't even been
completed in the complex in Bailey's
Cross- roads, Virginia at the time of the
disaster and the building was not due to
open until six months.
Failure Cause:
There was no flaw in the design.
Investigation showed that:
- During construction the forms
supporting the concrete columns on the
22nd floor were prematurely removed.
The cement had not set fully by then. As
a result the columns couldn’t bear the
weight of the 24th floor and failed.
- The failure put an
increased amount of pressure on the rest
of the columns on the 23rd floor until
the entire floor buckled and slammed
down on the floor below.
- The building had not been
engineered to withstand such a huge
increased load, and the tremendous
weight proved catastrophic. Each floor
gradually succumbed and plummeted
onto the story below in a devastating
ripple effect.
Fourteen construction workers died and
34 were injured.
GulfSteelStrands.com
Lesson Learnt:
Though design may be sound but so
should be the execution per design and
observing right construction which
practice, in this case has been found
wanting. Inspection & testing coupled
with regular supervision are not mere
formalities but activities that can make
or mar a project; or shall we say, make
or break a building!
Royal Plaza Hotel, Nakhon
Ratchasima, Thailand
On August 13, 1993, at around 10:00
am, the splendid six-story Royal Plaza
Hotel in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
took all but less than 10 seconds to
come crashing down, clocking just 1.6
seconds per floor!
137 people were killed and 227more
were injured in the collapse.
The tragedy also claimed the life of
U.S. Air Force sergeant Ramon Canda,
who was in town installing telephone
lines at the Korat Royal Thai Air Force
Base.
Failure Cause:
Allegations were that three stories had
been added to the building in 1990
without proper structural review. Also, a
huge amount of water was being stored
on the roof of the hotel ahead of an
expected water shortage. Added to
incremental load over and above the
already extra load of three extra stories.
Aftermath:
Police detained the owner of the Royal
Plaza Hotel, the architect, and the
concerned Structural Govt Engineer.
Court ordered five to pay Bt152 million
compensation for Hotel collapse. "This
case should serve as a reminder to every
local administrative organization to
never approve an inappropriate
construction plan," the lawyer Whereas
Boonperng said "People's safety must
come first".
Lotus Riverside Compound,
Shanghai, China
On June 27, 2009, Block 7, one of
eleven 13-story apartment buildings
making up the Lotus Riverside com-
pound in Shanghai, toppled over,
completely intact. The massive structure
fell and was lying flat with its
foundation pillars uprooted.
The high-rise was still under
construction, but luckily, most workers
were able to evacuate when they felt it
start to fall over.
Failure Cause:
Block 7 fell just one day after 272 feet
of a nearby riverbank collapsed, thus
proving the area to be unstable and that
the soil was loose. It was a case of the
development company working illegally
for five years on site. This raised serious
concerns over building practices across
China.
Page # 4 of 8

Hotel New World, Singapore
On March 15, 1986, all six stories of
Hotel New World collapsed in less than
60 seconds. The building housed a
hotel, a bank and a nightclub, all of
which disintegrated into piles of rock
and twisted metal, burying 50 people
inside.
It was the worst disaster Singapore had
experienced since World War II, and it
shocked the nation.
Failure Cause:
After intensive research, investigators
discovered a terrible error in the original
design of the building. The structural
engineer had completely left out the
building's “dead load,” in other words,
the weight of the building itself, during
the design process. As a result, it wasn't
strong enough to hold itself up.
Tragically, Hotel New World was
doomed from the beginning.
Lesson Learnt:
This serves as a classic case of
unpardonable professional negligence.
Legislation was introduced to enforce
maintenance and structural checks every
five years.
GulfSteelStrands.com
Three High-Rise Office Buildings,
Rio, Brazil
On January 26, 2012, a 20-story
building in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
spontaneously collapsed. The gigantic
high-rise crashed into another ten- story
building and a smaller “three or four”
story building, reducing all three
structures to one huge pile of rubble.
The impact sent an enormous wave of
dust and detritus through the streets of
Cinelandia Square, killing at least 17
people. If the disaster had occurred just
a few hours earlier, it would have
resulted in mass casualties. Fortunately,
the district, home to many office
buildings and Brazil’s prized Municipal
Theater, was pretty desolate due to the
late hour of the collapse.
Failure Cause:
Authorities attributed illegal
construction work to have weakened the
20-story building caused it to fragment,
which in turn triggered a chain reaction,
bringing down the two smaller
buildings.
Aftermath:
This catastrophe has led Brazilian
authorities to call for reforms and
stricter building and renovation
regulations, especially ahead of the
2014 World Cup.
Sampoong Department Store, Seoul,
South Korea
On June 29, 1995, in the space of 20
seconds, the Sampoong Department
Store in Seoul, South Korea fell to the
ground, killing 502 people and injuring
937 making it the largest peacetime
disaster in South Korean history
Failure Cause:
The collapse was mainly due to use of
sub-standard PC Strands and an overall
structural failure.
Criminal negligence, disregard for
ethical engineering practices, and
shoddy construction led to this
structural failure.
Many a lesson needs to be learnt from
this disaster:
1. Change of building use: The
building, which was originally designed
to be an office building, was redesigned
to be a department store. Change in use
from ‘an office building’ to a
‘department store’ decided when it was
halfway through its construction.
2. Flouting Design Norms:
• Despite the building not meant
to support a fifth story, a fifth floor
added
• The redesign involved cutting
away a several key support columns
to accommodate the escalators
installation. Redesign declared
unsafe by contractors and were
terminated. Construction continued
with an in-house company.
• This extra level proved to be a
Super-heavy, heated floor (heated
concrete base with hot water pipes
going through it, as patrons sit on
the floor of traditional Korean
Page # 5 of 8
 restaurants). Air conditioning units
added to the roof quadrupled the
load the structure was designed to
sustain.
3. Substandard Materials &
Construction:
• Substandard concrete used
and had only half the required 16
steel PC reinforcing Strands/bars it
needed.
• Also, the concrete columns
were thinner than necessary and
were reduced even more when fire
shields were installed around the
escalators.
4. Disregard to Maintenance:
• In April 1995, extensive cracks
were spotted, revealing high risk of
collapse. These fractures grew
exponentially, but management to
not lose the day’s revenue, refused
to evacuate the building.
• Seven minutes before the
collapse, the building began to pop
and crack, and employees sounded
the alarm, but it was too late to
avert disaster, and 1,500 people
were trapped inside.
Aftermath & Lesson Learnt:
This tragic event is a sad example of
unethical decisions. Many faced
imprisonment for negligence and
bribery after the incident
The Sampoong collapse only made the
public aware of a deadly problem that
plagued their structures. Out of the
investigation, 14% of South Korean
sky- scrapers were unsafe, 84% needed
repair, and only 2% met codes and
government standards.
The disaster later put a question-mark
regarding safety standards on other
engineering projects being undertaken
as South Korea in 1980s & 90s was
experiencing an economic boom.
A detailed review of South Korean
safety regulations resulted.
GulfSteelStrands.com
Twin Towers, New York City, USA
Without a doubt, the most devastating
building collapse in history was that of
the World Trade Center, on September
11, 2001.
The Twin Towers were masterfully
engineered using lightweight steel, a
central core, and an egg-crate design
creating a “redundant” structure. In
other words, if one column or support
were to fail, another would take its
place.
• Each building could handle
5,000 tons of lateral wind-load. The
weight of the jets was not enough to
overcome the strength of these
perimeter columns.
• Though 90,000 gallons of
burning jet fuel didn’t melt the steel
columns holding up the building; it
definitely weakened them.
• With 50 percent of their
previous strength the columns still could
hold up the building.
• The uneven temperature of the
fire, distorted the steel on one side of
sky- scraper causing a stress that proved
too much, leading to eventual buck- ling
of the floors. And then began a domino
collapse, pancaking down one on top of
the other.
• Each tower weighing 500,000
tons, in just ten seconds, had the
buildings collapsing, to hit the ground at
124 mph.
Lesson Learnt
Despite the fact that there were no
specific engineering flaws involved in
the design of the Twin Towers,
engineers religiously continue studying
the buildings to learn more about
redundant design and progressive
collapse; and most importantly, with the
aim of formulating life-saving safety
and evacuation procedures in the future.
Parting Words of Wisdom:
Total progressive collapse, is an engineering
phenomenon, first recognized in Ronan Point,
where TPC triggered the partial collapse that
brought an entire corner of the complex buckling
to the ground. Any buildings bearing severe,
concentrated blows that cripple significant
structural components (support beams, columns,
etc.) can crumble if the damages aren’t contained
and if components elsewhere blow out.
According to Mechanics of Progressive Collapse,
when upper floors crash down on those below,
sandwiching layers of rubble and debris, the initial
height h of a story reduces to l h, where one
expresses the compaction ratio. (In finite-strain
theory, l is called “stretch.”). From here, “the load
can increase without bounds.”
TPC is a two-phase process: Crush-
down, whereby gravity and the immense
downward kinetic thrust of floors upon mashed
floors successively crushes everything below,
gives way to Crush- up, the free-falling top floors
now piling on top of the wreckage.
The 9/11 destruction of the World
Trade Centre (WTC) was a big surprise for the
structural engineering profession.
No experienced structural engineer expected the
WTC towers to collapse. The fact that it did,
collapse compelled in depth examination.
The WTC is testimony to the danger of
progressive collapse, as do,
The collapse of Ronan Point apart- ments in the
United Kingdom in The New World Hotel in
Singapore;
- The 2000 Commonwealth Ave.
tower in Boston in 1971, triggered by punching of
insufficiently hardened slab;
- among the ones discussed here and
many others.
Progressive collapse is possible even for the
massive load-bearing concrete cores of the tallest
recent skyscrapers, though it would be much
harder to initiate. However, once a local damage
causes a sufficient downward displacement of the
superior part of structure, collapse is unstoppable.
Total progressive collapse is a potential “failure
mode” of extreme concern!
Page # 6 of 8
 ANNEXURE A

DCL CLARIFICATION

GulfSteelStrands.com Page # 7 of 8
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