Forensic investigations of collapse of industrial sheds at Thuvakudy, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: The human society has witnessed failures of many landmark structures right from that of tower of Babel to the collapse of Hotel Hyatt Regency walkway, U.S.A. Despite advancement of technology and improvements in the field of construction, failures are inevitable even today. Till recently, the failure of Kota Chambal Bridge created lot of panic to look for integrity and investigation of the conditions of all bridges by railways. All such failures raise curiosity of technologist as to why it happened. Man tries to obtain an answer and ultimately decide on liability. This arena where construction and law meet to investigate the cause of failure as well as determine liability is called forensic engineering. Literature suggests that forensic engineering is a quite widespread practice in the U.S.A whereas in India, not only there is lack of enough standards for investigation but also lesser practice of the same. Most often, failures in India are either police or insurance matters. It is therefore the object of this study to develop forensic investigation standards based on the time at which the failure occurs during building life cycle and how to minimize the socio-economic losses occurring consequentially. A questionnaire was circulated among more than 140 professionals in reputed firms in the construction and legal industry to gather information on how they/their organisation deal with failures, during what phase they occur, whether there are any legal implications and to what extent need is felt for a systematic approach to investigations of failures. Out of these 140 professionals, as many as 41 have responded to the query and contribute very important information. The questionnaire reveals that the industry feels there is a dire need for adopting forensic engineering and the only standards they rely on is non-destructive tests. A number of cases of failures in India and in U.S.A., which have occurred during construction and service period stages of life cycle of structure, were studied for their process, reports and laws of investigations. They have been evaluated for the socio-economic losses that occurred and the way how legal implications were dealt with by the parties or investigators involved. It is revealed so far that more often than not, an innocent professional is convicted without first investigating scientifically the cause. The game of blame shifting gets momentum. It is also found that depending on when the failure occurs during the building life cycle, the investigation process needs to be adapted accordingly. Finally, certain recommendations will be proposed for each phase, based on the differences between the process of investigation adopted in U.S.A and India.

Abstract: The problems associated with determining what actually happended after an unexpected instability has occurred are illustrated by case records. Examples are taken from failures of cut slopes in, and embankments on, soft clays and from the failure of a large pile foundation during proof loading. It is then shown how more information can be gleaned from post-failure investigations than has generally been the case up to now, and the important lessons learned are highlighted. It is proposed that a National Center for Investigating Civil Engineering Failures can be created to build up concentrated expertise and to develop rewarding methodologies for investigation of failures, to make the lessons learned cumulative and accessible to the profession, and to provide focal points for rewarding research to reduce significantly the frequency of unexpected failures.

Abstract: A research project was conducted to explore construction failure investigation techniques and processes to determine whether they were adequate and to develop failure investigation guidelines. Data was collected on failures and failure investigation techniques from surveying 115 members of the engineering and construction industry. Construction failure case studies were created using docu- mentation provided by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, state offices of safety and health, and forensic engineers. The construction failure case studies were analyzed to determine how these organizations conduct their investigations and to develop guidelines that can be used for construction failure investigations. This article provides: ~1! description of the methods used for the research; ~2! results obtained from the industry survey; ~3! summary of the results of an investigation into case studies on construction failures; ~4! analysis of the results; ~5! discussion on construction failure investigative techniques; ~6! guidelines developed during the research project for investigating and documenting failures; and ~7! recommended format for reporting the findings of failure investigations.