Inspection report of Mill house 1 of Heidelberg Cement Factory

Memo No: Date: 09/05/2012

As per request of Mr. Jabed , Plant Co-ordinator, Heidelberg cement, Bangladesh limited, Chittagong
Plant regarding the inspection of Mill House 1 Building of Heidelberg Cement factory at Patenga ,
Chittagong a three member inspection team was formed with following experts.

1. Prof. Dr. Md. Saiful islam

2. Prof. Dr. Swapan Kumar Palit
3. Mr. Mohammad Tarequl Alam.

The team visited the cement Mill House 1 Building of Heidelberg Cement Factory located at South
Patenga, Chittagong near Patenga Sea Beach. It is known that the construction of this building was
started in 1967 and in 1973 and thus it is around 45 years old. Moreover as the building is situated near
sea shore, it is subjected to the influence of the marine environment. During inspection following factors
have noticed.

1. The building is a beam column RCC frame structure having varying height (around 50ft to 90 ft).
The spacing of column and placement of beam is not regular.
2. Serious cracks are observed in same of the columns with the spalling of cover concrete leaving
the rebar in bare condition.
3. Cracks of various width are visible at different location of the beams and in few cases the
concrete is spalled off leaving the embedded reinforcement barely open.
4. RC slab (both floor &roof) are seen to have cracks at different locations. The rebars are seen
visible at same areas as a result of spalling of cover concrete due to rebar corrosion effects.
5. The structural condition of the enclosed bottom beam Hooper is very serious. In some location
flexural reinforcement are seen exposed after spalling of cover reinforcement. The cross
sectional areas of the bar are greatly reduced due to corrosion. Even the stirrup bars are
separated from the main flexural bars.
6. The structural condition of the inner surface of the bucket elevator shaft is the worst. All most
all the bars are corroded with spalling of cover concrete together with the loss of the x-sectional
areas of the bar.
7. During inspection the structural distress/cracks were also observed in the same places where
repair/renovation of the structural components (beam/column/slab)were conducted
earlier(time to time).

Probable cause of Structural Distress:

a) The structural distress/cracks developed in the beam /column/slab components might be
considered mainly due to the consequences of the rebar corrosion. The sign of corrosion was
----- in the cracked location .Moreover the x-sectional areas of the rebar were seen to be greatly
reduced in the same corroded location.
 b) In this building the cracks in the structural components might be due to the vibration of the
installed equipments including rotary ball mill. Moreover due to the marine environmental
effects , the air borne sea salt deposited over the structural concrete could easily intrude rebar
corrosion process. The gradual increase in the volume of the corroded product widened the
cracks in the cover concrete and ultimately led to spalling of cover concrete.

Summery and Conclusion: on the basis of the physical inspection of the various components of
the building and after analyzing the facts /data, the following comments /recommendation can be given.

a) Components are seen to be affected by the rebar corrosion activities in different scale. In some
columns , over 25mm wide cracks propagated over few feets are observed. Similar cracks are
also seen in some beams together with spalling of concrete over same areas leaving bare steel
with markedly reduced x-section areas. Moreover separation of ties/ stirrups from main flexural
steel in bottom beam of hopper may lead to catastrophic compression failure of the same
without advance warning.Hence attempts were taken presently to repair /renovate the
structural components, but structural distress/cracks has again been seen in the same place . So
it will not be wise to take another attempt to repair of the same.
b) Thus the overall structural condition of the Mill House-1 building is observed to be very poor
and hence is recommended to declare unfit for the use as factory building