Damage assessment and test results of construction materials of a fire-damaged RC building

This study presents a comprehensive damage assessment technique to evaluate post-fire condition of a two-basement +22-story RC commercial building in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A fire broke out on March 28, 2019, engulfing the 7th, 8th, and 9th floors of the building, resulting in a minimum of 25 fatalities...

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Main Authors: Md Abdul Momin, Khondaker Sakil Ahmed, Tanvir Mustafy, Md. Jahidul Islam
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-12-01
Series:Results in Engineering
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590123024012416
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author Md Abdul Momin
Khondaker Sakil Ahmed
Tanvir Mustafy
Md. Jahidul Islam
author_facet Md Abdul Momin
Khondaker Sakil Ahmed
Tanvir Mustafy
Md. Jahidul Islam
author_sort Md Abdul Momin
collection DOAJ
description This study presents a comprehensive damage assessment technique to evaluate post-fire condition of a two-basement +22-story RC commercial building in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A fire broke out on March 28, 2019, engulfing the 7th, 8th, and 9th floors of the building, resulting in a minimum of 25 fatalities and over 70 injuries. The five-hour-long colossal fire was initiated on the 8th floor of the building and propagated to the adjacent 7th and 9th floors. The structural components of all three floors were damaged though not at the same level. An in-depth technical inspection was conducted visually to assess the fire damages. Concrete cracking at different widths and depths, crumbled tiles and plasters, concrete failure in the roofs, exposed rebars are observed in both structural and non-structural components of those floors. Based on the visual inspection, damage contours of the different zones of the floors are prepared to determine the damage intensity. The assessment primarily showed that 27 % of the 7th floor, 19 % of the 8th floor, and 22 % of the 9th floor were severely burned in which 2–3 % of the structural components were damaged significantly by concrete crushing and exposed rebars. In addition, compressive strength, carbonation depth, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) and rebar tensile strength test were conducted on concrete and rebar specimens taken from the building to understand the effect of fire on the material properties of the existing building. Subsequently, parametric fire analysis has been conducted explicitly to understand the temperature-time characteristics of compartment fire during the fire period of the damaged floor. The parametric fire characteristics claimed that the fire was ventilation controlled and a maximum gas temperature of 1027.3 °C reached to the 7th Floor. The test results and fire analysis indicate that the increase in temperature caused by the fire has a substantial impact on the mechanical properties of the materials. Specifically, the concrete compressive strength and tensile strength of the reinforcing bars are found to be reduced by 8–35 %, and 15 %, respectively which are also verified though the numerical analysis.
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spelling doaj-art-9ae2cabee6bf459eade662e29c37c9f52024-12-19T10:57:42ZengElsevierResults in Engineering2590-12302024-12-0124102986Damage assessment and test results of construction materials of a fire-damaged RC buildingMd Abdul Momin0Khondaker Sakil Ahmed1Tanvir Mustafy2Md. Jahidul Islam3Department of Civil Engineering, Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), Dhaka, BangladeshCorresponding author.; Department of Civil Engineering, Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), Dhaka, BangladeshDepartment of Civil Engineering, Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), Dhaka, BangladeshDepartment of Civil Engineering, Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), Dhaka, BangladeshThis study presents a comprehensive damage assessment technique to evaluate post-fire condition of a two-basement +22-story RC commercial building in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A fire broke out on March 28, 2019, engulfing the 7th, 8th, and 9th floors of the building, resulting in a minimum of 25 fatalities and over 70 injuries. The five-hour-long colossal fire was initiated on the 8th floor of the building and propagated to the adjacent 7th and 9th floors. The structural components of all three floors were damaged though not at the same level. An in-depth technical inspection was conducted visually to assess the fire damages. Concrete cracking at different widths and depths, crumbled tiles and plasters, concrete failure in the roofs, exposed rebars are observed in both structural and non-structural components of those floors. Based on the visual inspection, damage contours of the different zones of the floors are prepared to determine the damage intensity. The assessment primarily showed that 27 % of the 7th floor, 19 % of the 8th floor, and 22 % of the 9th floor were severely burned in which 2–3 % of the structural components were damaged significantly by concrete crushing and exposed rebars. In addition, compressive strength, carbonation depth, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) and rebar tensile strength test were conducted on concrete and rebar specimens taken from the building to understand the effect of fire on the material properties of the existing building. Subsequently, parametric fire analysis has been conducted explicitly to understand the temperature-time characteristics of compartment fire during the fire period of the damaged floor. The parametric fire characteristics claimed that the fire was ventilation controlled and a maximum gas temperature of 1027.3 °C reached to the 7th Floor. The test results and fire analysis indicate that the increase in temperature caused by the fire has a substantial impact on the mechanical properties of the materials. Specifically, the concrete compressive strength and tensile strength of the reinforcing bars are found to be reduced by 8–35 %, and 15 %, respectively which are also verified though the numerical analysis.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590123024012416FireDamage assessmentDamage intensityCore testCarbonation testHeat transfer analysis
spellingShingle Md Abdul Momin
Khondaker Sakil Ahmed
Tanvir Mustafy
Md. Jahidul Islam
Damage assessment and test results of construction materials of a fire-damaged RC building
Results in Engineering
Fire
Damage assessment
Damage intensity
Core test
Carbonation test
Heat transfer analysis
title Damage assessment and test results of construction materials of a fire-damaged RC building
title_full Damage assessment and test results of construction materials of a fire-damaged RC building
title_fullStr Damage assessment and test results of construction materials of a fire-damaged RC building
title_full_unstemmed Damage assessment and test results of construction materials of a fire-damaged RC building
title_short Damage assessment and test results of construction materials of a fire-damaged RC building
title_sort damage assessment and test results of construction materials of a fire damaged rc building
topic Fire
Damage assessment
Damage intensity
Core test
Carbonation test
Heat transfer analysis
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590123024012416
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