SOME EXAMPLES OF

FAILURES IN RCC BUILDING

Failures of Small Residential Buildings

• Quality of construction - Poor building material

• Lack of good construction practices
• Engineers are ignored by individual house owners
• Masons are given sole responsibility of both design and construction.
Failure of RCC Column Due to Corrosion of Reinforcement

• Excessive rust in dowel rebars in column

• Exposure of dowels to atmosphere specially in the rainy season.
• Precaution to be taken : If a rebar or dowel is kept exposed, it should be
covered with cement sand slurry and the coating needs to be applied every
fortnight.
Failure of Building Due to Improper transfer of load

• Due to poor workmanship (Improper transfer of load due to poor centering)

• The centering done by a normal mason and proper techniques are not used.
Also due to congestion of rebars at beam column junction the mason avoids
compaction which leads to honeycombing.
• Precaution to be taken : Centering has to be done by training centering masons
and site supervision by engineers is necessary during foundation centering,
casting and casting at every slab. Compaction needs to be done
homogeneously at every stage of construction
Failure of Reinforced Concrete Structure due to Poor
concrete mix and water quality

• Poor concrete mix and water quality.

• Due to poor quality of concrete mix and water. concrete did not achieve the
desired strength.
• Precaution to be taken : The quality of all building material (cement, stone
chips, sand and water) needs to be checked before mixing. Also the pH of
water should be more than 6, i.e. not acidic. Any deviation from design should
be approved by the structural engineer.
Structural Damage to Failure of Soil

• Column bars bent due to sudden thunderstorm and landslide

• No soil testing done. Hence when sudden thunderstorm came and flooding at site occurred, the soil
of straight cut walls failed and the landslide occur.
• Precaution to be taken : Soil has to be tested for both chemical properties and strength before design
and construction starts. The side wall of excavated site should have a slope of more than 30 degrees.
In case of weak soil, micropile or wooden sheet pile needs to be used to arrest soil.
Failure of RCC Structure due to use of Beach Sand in
Construction

• Deep cracks in ground floor columns and concrete chipping all over the building
• Beach sand (high salinity) and ground water (without chemical testing done) if used in
concrete.
• Precaution to be taken : The quality of building materials should follow the quality norm as
mentioned in IS 456: 2008 Section 2. The detail is given in the chart.
THANK YOU