A preliminary analysis and discussion of the condominium building collapse in surfside, Florida, US, June 24, 2021

2021, Volume 15, Issue 5

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Abstract

Keywords

Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering >> 2021, Volume 15, Issue 5 doi: 10.1007/s11709-021-0766-0

A preliminary analysis and discussion of the condominium building collapse in surfside, Florida, US, June 24, 2021

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¹. Key Laboratory of Civil Engineering Safety and Durability of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China;². School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University Gold Coast Campus, Queensland 4222, Australia;³. China Architecture Design & Research Group Co., Ltd, Beijing 100044, China;⁴. Beijing Key Laboratory of Earthquake Engineering and Structural Retrofit, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China;¹. Key Laboratory of Civil Engineering Safety and Durability of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China;¹. Key Laboratory of Civil Engineering Safety and Durability of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China;². School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University Gold Coast Campus, Queensland 4222, Australia;⁴. Beijing Key Laboratory of Earthquake Engineering and Structural Retrofit, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China;³. China Architecture Design & Research Group Co., Ltd, Beijing 100044, China

Received: 2021-07-04 Accepted: 2021-09-15 Available online: 2021-10-15

Abstract

On June 24, 2021, a 40-year-old reinforced concrete flat plate structure building in Miami suffered a sudden partial collapse. This study analyzed the overall performance and key components of the collapsed building based on the building design codes (ACI-318 and GB 50010). Punching shear and post-punching performances of typical slab-column joints are also studied through the refined finite element analysis. The collapse process was simulated and visualized using a physics engine. By way of these analyses, weak design points of the collapsed building are highlighted. The differences between the reinforcement detailing of the collapsed building and the requirements of the current Chinese code are discussed, together with a comparison of the punching shear and post-punching performances. The simulated collapse procedure and debris distribution are compared with the actual collapse scenes.

Keywords

progressive collapse ; flat plate ; simulation ; punching

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