Savar Tragedy and Politics

[baajey]

Only about four decades ago Factor of Safety (FS) was used in design calculation. SF was decided by the Owner of a project, although using 1.5 was common. So, if the load is, say, 100 ton and the resistance strength of a structure is 150 ton, then it satisfied the FS criteria of 1.5. But, the major western countries revised the procedure in a way that one load factor is now multiplied to one type of loading, and another load factor may be multiplied to another type of loading at the start of design.

Even, the LF for a temporary loading may be 1.2 in some cases. LFs are not a constant 1.5 as it is in case of FS. LFs have been duly specified in the major codes. However, I am surprised to read from your post that the Indian design engineers have found some ways to manipulate these load factors. This is an absolute NO.

If such things can happen in India, you can imagine what is then happening in the design procedure in Bangladesh. I think, no real design procedure is being followed in BD. It is a kind of rules of thumb. "Kanun kya Hai? Kanun Hamara Moch ka Tau par Hain."

no sir, by "undoing" those factors , i meant, huge non compliance s when it came to construction at site. small construction companies deliberately use some malpractices like decreasing the bar dia, or decreasing the no. of rods in a particular section, or putting too much sand (thereby altering the sand-cement ratios) to decrease construction costs. in an extreme example, i came by one instance when the depth of tie beams and plinth beams were decreased by 50mm to even 100mm. my friend who was inspecting the site saw this and threatened them with termination of contract. but the contractors just fed him up fat to hush up the matter. fortunately, my friend, apart from being greedy, made sure that those sections/members were demolished and remade again in accordance with the drawings. he got undue benefits and the members reconstructed and the contractors saved their behinds from the prospects of contract termination. but there were many instances, no doubt that, site engr just take the money without the least concern abt the discrepancy in drawings and constructions.
so there is NO manipulation from the designers' end ...that part i m sure of.
and i m pretty sure designers adhere to the codes in Bdesh as well. its the money minded contractors like Rana who screw it up.
so u can understand if these malpractices are there in organised sectors, what will be the case with small term builders.

 

[the just]

On topic-todays prothom alo has reported,AL has thanked all BD ppl for going to savar and volunteering in this tragedy after our JONO NETRI SKH has urged ppl to do so.
(TORA AMARE MARI HALA,I SUICIDE KHAIUM).

 

[Luffy 500]

Politics invariably comes here when a minister says that opposition activist bought down the building with bare hands not to mention forcing the workers to work in an unsafe building only as a sign of pitting them up against opposition movement. And to prevent these tragedies from happening, we have to go to the root of all problems that is corruption.

Bangladesh people have a very bad ego. So, this ego may prohibit them to follow American or British codes. Why should we follow the WHITEs or Christians, is the kind of ego.

Really? this is the reason for not following safety standards? Rather its rampant corruption and lack of awarness that is the main culprit here.

 

[Banglar Bagh]

I do not live in the country. So, I do not know which codes are followed. Bangladesh people have a very bad ego. So, this ego may prohibit them to follow American or British codes. Why should we follow the WHITEs or Christians, is the kind of ego. But, the country must have certain codes and standards, however weak these may be, that all of the related people should follow in unison. However, these must give equivalent results to the internationally accepted codes. Think of ACI and BS Codes. They contain different sets of formulas and assumptions, but at the end of design calculations both give almost the similar results. It means these are compatible with each other.

Another point is the work ethics. The owners have a knack for cheating himself by using less amount of cement than required. They also direct the contractor to make the dimensions of columns and beams smaller. Smaller dimensions will certainly face shear failures of the structure within a few years after construction. Rana Plaza looks like a shear filure, although not very sure.

By the way, are you an architect or a civil engineer?

In Bangladesh Engineers follow Bangladesh National Building Code(BNBC). But almost 85% of it is copied from ACI code and 15% from UB Code 94. A new revised version of BNBC is soon to be released. The new revised version of BNBC is being prepared jointly by Housing and Building Research Institute(HBRI), Public Works Department(PWD) and BUET CE department faculties.

And about the low-standard of construction, its mostly due to lack of construction management rather than design faults. The project Engineers never really care about quality control and inexperienced masons are recruited for cost minimization. Also due to rapid increase in price of rod, the construction company's choose a smaller cross-section reinforcement other than what the design governs.

The difficulty faced by Structural Engineers mostly in BD is when designing the foundation. Most of the soil testing firms are just noobs who have no idea whatsoever and just tempers the data in whichever way they like. The designers mostly rely on their engineering judgement when designing foundation. Mostly designers now prefer pile foundation with length upto 50'-60' around and dont even bother recommending a soil testing.

By the way you seem to be one hell of a Structural Engineer. I am just a fresh graduate but I had the feeling the collapse in Savar was due to shear failure. Since you concurred I guess I am right.

 

[Lone]

I worked on overseas projects. About 60% of my work involved the design of foundations (independent, raft/combined or piled) for light, medium and heavy machines as well as for stacks, oil tanks etc. Usually, the Owner of a project specifies the codes. So, it was US, British, DIN (German) and also NF (France) for overseas projects.

For designing Japanese domestic projects, a engineer has to follow JAS and JIS. But, he may also have to use certain Clauses of API (American Petroleum Institute) codes when the it is oil related structures.

The last project I did recently is a futuristic Maldives project that envisages the use of cold deep seawater, temperature between 5 to 7*C at -800m below the sea surface, to operate all the A/Cs, desalination plant, ice production plant, water bottling plant etc in that tourist country. For me, this time it is not really the design, but is a kind of technical feasibility study and reporting. However, the project is now on hold because of Maldives domestic politics.

Singapore may be a good place to seek job. In case of Japan, you may contact JGC Corporation, Chiyoda Engineering and Chemicals Co., Ltd., Toyo Engineering. Find out their detail information from the web sites. But, I wonder why do you use the word, civvie?

Hey bro where were you, We started construction of our family house a year ago. Would've consulted with you for the design ( free of cost ?)