Structural Condition Assessment Report of 5 Storied Residential building at

Brick field road, Pathorghata, Chittagong.

Date: 23/11/2019

A. Introduction: A fatal explosion took place on the ground floor of a five storied
residential building named Barua Building on the brick filed road of Pathorgata road,
Chittagong on 10/12/2019. Due to this explosion, different components of the building
were severely damaged. At least seven people died and many others injured in this
accident. To assess the current structural condition of the building, a team was formed
comprising of following members.

1. -----.

2. ----

3. Mr. Mohammad Tarequl Alam.

4. ----

5. --

The committee visited & inspected the assigned site on 23/11/2019 physically to collect the
necessary information/data of the building in order to make report on the condition of the
building and to provide recommendation.
B. Building Details:
This is a five storied RC frame structure building located at Brick field road, Pathor gata,
Chattogram . The building was being used for residential purpose. Construction of building was
stared in 1978 and completed in 1980. Current owner of the building bought the building for
previous owner in 2000. According to some neighbor, before handing over to the 2 nd party, 1st
party made some repair works including A brief summary of the building is shown in Table 1.

Table 01: Building Information

i. Building usage type Residential (Occupancy A as per BNBC-1993)

ii. Fire and electric safety Not in the scope of the report

iii. Structural system RC Ordinary Moment Resisting Frame (OMRF)

iv. Floor/roof system Two-way edge supported RC slab

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v. Floor area Approximately 2000 sft

vi. No. of stories Five storied

vii. Construction year 1978-1980

viii. Construction by Owner

ix. Floor load Live load residential dwellings

x. Foundation type Not Available

xiii. Construction materials Brick/Stone chips, reinforcement, and cement

xiv. Typical Column Size 10"x10"/10"x12"

xv. Typical Beam Size 10"x14"

xvi Slab Thickness 5"

xvii Storage yard for factory ----

xviii Generation and boiler ----

xix Construction irregularity No Documents were found in the CDA Regarding approval
of drawing No set back from the road was observed during
investigation. According to an existing tenant set back
provided initially was included in the building by the 1st
owner of the building before handing over to the 2nd owner.
xx Repair History According to neighbor, some minor repair has been done in
the building in past years.

xxi Pounding Hazard Exist

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 Figure 01: Existing floor plan

C. Available Documents Preview

1. Soil Report-
No soil report was found.

2. Plan, Design & Drawing

An architectural layout of the building was made after explosion for analysis purpose. Besides no
structural drawing was found

D. Observations:
After carrying out details inspection of different structural components with few spot tests, the
committee noted the several points which are summarized in Table 2.

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Table 0 2. Observation details on structural components:
Location Components Observation
2(two) road side columns were severely
Column
damaged by the explosion (Figure:02)
Cracks in beam were observed around
Beam damaged columns (Figure: 02) and other
different parts of the floor.
All the front side walls were blown away by
Ground floor the explosion. Besides large cracks were seen
Wall
to form in different parts of the floor
(Figure:02)
Almost all the window glasses were broken
Door & down due to explosion. Besides doors were
Window found broken down in different parts of the
floor. (Figure:02)
Fine Cracks were observed in different parts of
Column
the floor
Fine cracks were observed in different parts of
Beam
the floor
First floor
Wall No severe cracks were observed in the floor
window glasses were found broken down due
Door &
to explosion in different parts of the floor along
Window
wing broken doors (Figure:02)
Fine Cracks were observed in different parts of
Column
the floor
Fine cracks were observed in different parts of
Beam
the floor
2nd floor
Wall No severe cracks were observed in the floor
window glasses were found broken down due
Door &
to explosion in different parts of the floor along
Window
wing broken doors (Figure:02.
Fine Cracks were observed in different parts of
Column
the floor
Fine cracks were observed in different parts of
Beam
the floor
3rd floor
Wall No severe cracks were observed in the floor
Window glasses were found broken down due
Door &
to explosion in different parts of the floor along
Window
wing broken doors (Figure:02)
4th floor Fine Cracks were observed in different parts of
Column
the floor
Fine cracks were observed in different parts of
Beam
the floor
Wall No severe cracks were observed in the floor
Door & Window glasses were found broken down due
Window to explosion in different parts of the floor along

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 wing broken doors (Figure:02).
Downward Settlement of veranda cantilever
Veranda Slab
slab was observed
Damping of slabs and rebar corrosion was observed in different
Others
parts of the building

E. Structural Analysis:
Structural analysis of the building was done using ETABS 2016. Due to non-availability of
the material information, f’c was considered 2500 psi and fy was considered 40000 psi as per
BNBC Guide line. For gravity and lateral load BNBC-1993 was followed. For damaged
columns cracked section analysis was made considering 50% of column strength reduction.
From the analysis it has been found that almost all the columns were found inadequate to
resist the design load. Foundation capacity could not be checked due to the lack of
information’s.

F. Concluding remarks:
On the basis of the physical inspection and the analysis, the team make the following concluding
remarks.
1. Capacity of the columns of the building is ot
adequate to sustain the design load.
2. Due to explosion 2(two) columns were damaged
severely which increase the stress concentration in the surrounding column. The increased stress
may lead to failure of these columns at any moment.
3. Hence, it is recommended to provide necessary
support in place of damaged columns using steel girder, to avoid unwanted accidents.
G. Recommendation
Based on the above conclusion, the expert team recommend following options
Option 1: Demolition of the building
Option 2: Retrofitting of the building