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Newsletter No 36 - October 2014
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Report Overview
Thanks to all of those who have submitted reports, a selection of which are given below. There are others in the pipeline and the data base continues to grow. However the success of the programme depends on receiving a constant supply of material. Ten thousand subscribers receive these Newsletters and if you benefit from them then please contribute by sending concerns, in complete confidence, to Structural-Safety. More reports are ALWAYS needed. In this edition the first report is about the failure of a tower crane leg, probably due to fatigue, and raises the issue of whether the history of an often used part should be known. There is another report on the quality of imported structural steelwork and rebar and a repeat of the frequently quoted advice "buyer beware". Two concerns on wind follow. The first relates to a two storey site cabin being blown over. The second is on the use of the Eurocode. Then come two reminders of winter with more on the splitting of RHS stanchions and a warning about snow slides from curved roofs. During site excavation a dangerous temporary spoil heap was spotted by a passing engineer who persuaded the contractor to use safer practices; an admirably responsible attitude. Another reporter describes how the load testing of a very deep beam came to a premature end. Finally it has been observed that the design of rebar in slabs with twisting moments may not always be in accordance with recommended practice. Two of the nine cases are about design, two are about events during the normal use of a building, and the others relate to site operations. This is consistent with the usual proportions of reports. Lessons can be learned from all of them. At recent events in London; the ICE Health and Safety in Construction Conference, and the Capita Safety Lecture, it was stressed that learning from others is a key aspect of successful safety cultures.
Overview of Reports in this Newsletter
399 Tower crane - failure of loadbearing part
A tower crane suffered a failure of one of its four main legs approximately 12m below the slew ring. The fault was discovered, says the reporter, as a result of the tower crane operator reporting some unusual banging and vibrations
474 Imported steel
Defective steel, says a reporter, was found in a major retail store where the material had been imported from a supplier in the Far East. This only came to light after the problem was noticed on site and subsequent testing revealed major flaws in the manufacturing process
450 Two tier stacked site cabin blown over
A two tier stacked site cabin was blown over in the wind with someone inside – thankfully they were not injured.
403 Application of wind load code BS EN 1991 - wind actions
A reporter's concern is about the application of the wind load code EN 1991 BS EN 1991-1-4: 2005 Eurocode 1: Actions on structures - Part 1-4
438 Snow sliding off industrial building roofs
Due to a snow slide a lean-to roof at lower level than the main roof of a large industrial building collapsed and ground level equipment was damaged.
469 Failure of load test setup
A composite steel girder was designed to support the platform for a Metro Rail station and it was decided to do a working load test on it at the fabrication yard before erection.
441 Computer analysis and slab design twisting moments
A reporter has noticed on many occasions when checking Reinforced Concrete and Post-tensioned slab designs that engineers often neglect to consider twisting moments when arriving at slab design moments.
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