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Causes of Building Collapse and Prevention in Nigeria

Conference Paper · October 2014

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Nigerian Institute of Civil Engineers (NICE) 11th International Conference & Annual General Meeting 2014

Theme: Civil Engineering: The Cradle of National Economic Growth

CAUSES OF BUILDING COLLAPSE AND PREVENTION IN NIGERIA

John WASIU
johnwasiu@yahoo.co.uk

Oluwadare Joshua OYEBODE

oyebodedare@yahoo.com

Victor Babafemi ADEBAYO

vicfema2k5@yahoo.com

Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD)

Civil Engineering Department,
College of Engineering,
Ekiti State, Nigeria.

ABSTRACT structural failures. This research seeks to analyze

The activities of unskilled craftsmen in the these problems and propose various solutions to
building industry have smeared the image of the combat the problem of building collapse in
building profession in the recent past. The Nigeria.
construction industry is continually faced with
Keywords: Building collapse, Development,
difficult decisions. It is a simple fact that the
Agencies, investigations, Nigeria.
hazards during building construction are a great
concern, complex, difficult to observe and
1. INTRODUCTION
evaluate. The causes of structural failure in
Buildings are structures that serve as shelters for
Nigeria are numerous and can be complex
man, his properties and activities. They must be
depending on the type and complexity of the
properly planned, designed and constructed to
structure. The inability of the engineer to carry
obtain desired satisfaction from the
out proper site investigations, inability to
environment. The factors to be observed in
calculate design loads accurately, inability to
building construction include durability,
prevent the use of substandard building
adequate stability to prevent its failure or
materials, inability of the engineers / planning
discomfort to the users, resistance to weather,
authority to have good design layout and
fire outbreak and other forms of accidents.
inability of the engineers to understand
structural analysis and design principles lead to

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Nigerian Institute of Civil Engineers (NICE) 11th International Conference & Annual General Meeting 2014

Theme: Civil Engineering: The Cradle of National Economic Growth

Failure is an unacceptable difference between
expected and observed performance. A failure
can be considered as occurring in a component
when that component can no longer be relied
upon to fulfill its principal functions. Limited
deflection in a floor that causes a certain amount
of crack/distortion in partitions could reasonably
be considered as defect but not a failure,
whereas excessive deflection resulting in serious
damage to partitions, ceilings and floor finishes
Fig. 1: The Collapsed Naval Building located at
could be classified as a failure (Roddis, 1993).
Gwarimpa, Abuja,
Failure of structure is not a strange thing in the
The causes of building failure, from the public
construction industry all over the world, with
view can be summarized under improper design,
particular reference to the developing countries
incompetent contractor, faulty construction
which was never designed to happen. Incidents
methodology, poor Town Planning approval
of collapsed buildings, collapsed bridges or
/development monitoring process; non-
other structures of various types are not peculiar
compliance with specifications/standards by
to Nigeria alone but the continuous reports of
developers/contractors; use of substandard
collapsed buildings most especially in Lagos
materials and equipments; inadequate
state area of Nigeria needs to be checked
supervision or inspection/monitoring, economic
urgently. Arayela and Adam (2001) affirmed
pressures, incompetent conversion, change of
that an informal survey conducted by the Nigeria
use of buildings, aged buildings, poor
Institute of Buildings (NIOB) has revealed that
maintenance culture. Data analysis of these
more buildings may have collapsed during
factors showed that non-compliance with
construction in Lagos state than in the rest of the
specifications/standards by
country put together over the past 45 years
developers/contractors; employment of
(1955–2000). There are similar cases of
incompetent contractor and use of substandard
collapsed buildings across the country.
materials and equipments were the three

2. CAUSES OF BUILDING FAILURE prominent causes of building collapses

witnessed in Nigeria. This finding can be
attributed also to the insurgence of
inexperienced, stingy or over bearing building

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Nigerian Institute of Civil Engineers (NICE) 11th International Conference & Annual General Meeting 2014
Theme: Civil Engineering: The Cradle of National Economic Growth
developers who issue instructions concerning the
way and manner building works should be
carried out on site which at times may not be in
the overall interest of the project. Finally, once
suppliers of building materials are able to
penetrate and influence the contractor by
offering gratification as a subtle way of
delivering low quality building materials, the
door is then open for possible future challenges
to the stability of the structure. As a third means
of assessing the remote causes of building
collapse, the opinion of stakeholders in the
academia was sought. These remote causes
include falling standard of education; lack of
continuing professional development; non-
enforcement of existing laws; endemic poor
work ethics and bribery and corruption.
Academicians in the built environment were of
the opinion that the non-enforcement of existing
laws by the town Planning Authorities as a result
of the lack of political will by the various arms
of government has been the number one factor.
3. DETERMINISTIC AND RELIABILITY
ANALYSIS APPROACH
The CP110 (1972) and BS8110 (1997), which
are prescriptive and deterministic, do not
consider explicitly the variability inherent in the
variables usually considered during design
however; safety factors are assigned to cater for
some level of ignorance. These factors cannot
consistently be adequate for all widely varying
degrees of uncertainty in engineering practice.
9
In order to evaluate the effect of uncertainties in
engineering systems, advanced principles of
reliability are employed. According to
O'Connor (1992), reliability is defined as the
ability of an item to perform a required function
under stated condition for a period of time.
Failure on the other hand is defined as the
termination of the ability of an item to perform a
required function. Thus reliability and failure are
related (Weissman et al, 1994). Reliability
analysis embodies the combination of all
available probabilistic and statistical techniques
as well as the modern science of decision
making. These combination makes reliability
estimate to reflect the quality and quantity of
available information and also provides a
consistency with present state of stress analysis,
failure analysis and environmental and load
analysis (Afolayan, 1992).
By bringing computer tools to the desk of
virtually every engineer, analysis and design
packages open way to much more wide spread
use of computer techniques, and they challenge
the creativity of engineer to find new ways of
using these techniques in tackling design
problems (Falk, 1985). Along this argument, as
far back as two decades ago, Bensasson, et al
(1980) were of the opinion that since computers
are coming into more general use in design
offices, computer programmes based on CP110
(1972) code requirement should be used for
design purposes, so as to save time in design.
Reliability Methodology
 Nigerian Institute of Civil Engineers (NICE) 11th International Conference & Annual General Meeting 2014

Theme: Civil Engineering: The Cradle of National Economic Growth

To begin reliability analysis, the state variables “failure domain”. These domains are described
of the problem must be defined. The state by the limit state function;
variables are the basic load and resistance
g (R, M) = 0 ---- -- 1
parameters used to formulate the performance Also,
function. The statistical parameters (means, g (R, M) > 0 (safe domain) -- 2
g (R, M) < 0 (unsafe domain) -- 3
variance, standard derivation) of these variables This probability of failure or success is very
must be generated or calculated using either the difficult to evaluate, so the concept of reliability
Monte Carlo simulation technique or using index is used to quantify structural reliability.
formulae. Reliability index is related to the probability of
If all loads (or loads effects are represented by failure by:
the variable M and total resistance (or capacity)
   1 ( Pf ) -- -- 4
R, then the space of state variables is a two- Or
dimensional space, “the safe domain” and the Pf   (   ) -- -- -- 5

Analysis and Presentation of Results

Deterministic analysis and design of two-way solid slab to BS8110 (1997).The floor of the structural
drawing below is designed as two-way slab using the C# program developed.

5500mm 5000mm 5000mm 5500mm

4200 mm P1 P2 P2 P1

3000 mm P3 P4 P4 P3

4200 mm
P1 P2 P2 P1

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Nigerian Institute of Civil Engineers (NICE) 11th International Conference & Annual General Meeting 2014

Theme: Civil Engineering: The Cradle of National Economic Growth

Fig. 1: Deterministic design of two-way slab using C# programming language

Fig. 2: Reliability analysis using FORM.

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Nigerian Institute of Civil Engineers (NICE) 11th International Conference & Annual General Meeting 2014

Theme: Civil Engineering: The Cradle of National Economic Growth

4. PRESENTATION OF RESULTS
The comparison between the deterministic designs of the two-way solid floor is presented in table 1.

Table 1: Comparison between deterministic and reliability analysis of the two-way solid floor.

Panels Asp Asp β (Safety Pf

(deterministic (reliability index
design) analysis)
2
1 377 mm 603 mm2 3.08 1.03  10 – 3
2 377 mm2 603 mm2 3.08 1.03  10 – 3
3 377mm2 603 mm2 3.08 1.03  10 – 3
4 377 mm2 603 mm2 3.08 1.03  10 – 3
Taking the average value of  for reliability design,
 = 3.08
Pf = 1.03  10 – 3
Summary of code calibration
The summary of the code calibration is presented in table 2

Table 2: Summary of code calibration

µL/µD Φ γD γL

0.50 0.80 1.17 2.10

0.75 0.79 1.15 2.23

1.00 0.84 1.13 2.29

Taking the mean values of φ, γD and γL and keeping two significant figures, the new proposed resistance
for the design of the two-way slab is given in the form:
φ = 0.8, γ = 1.2, γ = 2.2
Figures 4.6 and 4.7 show the variation of reliability index as a function of live- dead load ratio while
tables 4.16, 4.17 and 4.18 show the variation of safety index with live-dead load ratios, depth of slab and
length of slab respectively.

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Nigerian Institute of Civil Engineers (NICE) 11th International Conference & Annual General Meeting 2014

Theme: Civil Engineering: The Cradle of National Economic Growth

Table 3: Shows comparison between areas of reinforcement through A, B and C

h(mm) 1 1.25 1.5 1.75 2 2.25 2.5 2.75 3

Β -0.084 1.77 3.08 4.06 4.83 5.45 5.97 6.39 6.75

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
-2
h(mm) β

Fig. 4: Variation of safety index with depth of slab

A 1.0G k  2.2Q k 1.1G k  2.2Q k 1.2G k  2.2Q k 1.3G k  2.2Q k 1.4G k  2.2Q k

Area req. Areq 388 mm2 408 mm2 427 mm2 448 mm2 468 mm2
B 1.0G k  1.6Q k 1.1G k  1.6Q k 1.2G k  1.6Q k 1.3G k  1.6Q k 1.4G k  1.6Q k

Area req. Areq 265 mm2 280 mm2 297 mm2 313 mm2 329 mm2
C,(FORM) 603 mm2 603 mm2 603 mm2 603 mm2 603 mm2
A = Partial factors obtained from code calibration.
B= partial factors from deterministic design equation.
C= First Order Reliability method.

Table 7: Variation of safety index with partial factors of safety

ϒQ
ϒG 1.6 1.8 2 2.2
1 0.74 0.74 1.68 3.08
1.2 0.74 1.68 1.68 3.08
1.4 0.74 1.68 1.68 3.08

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 Nigerian Institute of Civil Engineers (NICE) 11th International Conference & Annual General Meeting 2014

Theme: Civil Engineering: The Cradle of National Economic Growth

Fig. 6: Variation of safety index with partial factors of safety

Qk/Gk 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5 1.75 2

Safety
Index(β) 4.08 3.11 2.22 1.39 0.613 -0.119 -0.814 -1.48

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
-2

Qk/Gk β

Q
Figure 3: Variation of reliability index (β) with live-dead load ratio.

Table 5: Variation of reliability Index,  against depth of slab.

Table 6: Shows variation in safety index with length of slab

Length(m) 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 7
Β 3.68 3.42 2.73 2.23 2.07 1.91 1.86 1.76 1.66

8
7
6
14
5
4
3
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Nigerian Institute of Civil Engineers (NICE) 11th International Conference & Annual General Meeting 2014
Theme: Civil Engineering: The Cradle of National Economic Growth
Fig. 5: Variation of safety index with length of slab
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
The deterministic design of the two-way slab
following the BS8110 (1997) code’s
requirements yield an area of reinforcement, As
2
=377 mm for all panels, while the reliability
analysis on the other hand, yield area of
reinforcement As=603 mm2 for all panels and
safety index, β=3.08 which satisfies the JCSS
(2000) code’s requirement. (β=3-4, Ellinwood,
1982).This revealed that the deterministic design
is weak and unreliable.
Fig.4.6 shows that reliability index decreases
with increase in live-dead load ratio and unsafe
when the live-dead load ratio exceeds unity.
Fig. 4.7 shows that reliability index increases
with increase in the depth of slab but becomes
unsafe at depth of 100 mm and uneconomical at
depth between 225 mm-300 mm.
Fig. 4.8 revealed that reliability index decreases
with increase in slab length.
15
Tables 4.16, 4.17 and 4.18 show the variation of
safety index with different live-load ratio, depth
and length of slab respectively.
Code calibration revealed that the partial factor
of safety for dead load as seen in the
deterministic design was over estimated due to
unforeseen error and as such, made the
deterministic design unreliable. It also revealed
that the partial factor of safety for the live load
was under- estimated due to lack of data and not
considering that solid floors normally encounter
load not bargained for in the course of use.
Code calibration is generally performed for a
given class of structures, materials and/or loads
in such a way that the reliability measured by the
first order reliability index β or the annual
probability of failure estimated on the basis of
the structures designed using the calibrated
partial factors of safety are as close as possible
to the reliability indices obtained through
FORM.
Nigerian Institute of Civil Engineers (NICE) 11th International Conference & Annual General Meeting 2014

Theme: Civil Engineering: The Cradle of National Economic Growth

Correlation analysis between code calibration which also gives lower probability of
and deterministic design was estimated to be failure.
7.2% (less significant) while that code  Therefore, having considered worst situation
calibration and reliability analysis was estimated of live to dead load ratio, through code
to be 25% (more significant). This also reveals calibration, the new partial factors of safety
the weakness of deterministic design method for the two-way solid slab are given in the
and also supports the fact that calibrated partial form: φ = 0.8, γ = 1.2, γ = 2.2
factors of safety are as close as possible to the
reliability indices obtained through FORM.  When replaced by the old ones

The new partial factors of safety obtained from  G  1.4 and  Q  1.6 , a reliable section
code calibration yielded close results with that of with an increased structural safety will be
FORM when used to redesign the panels. achieved.

5. CONCLUSION RECOMMENDATIONS
 Most deterministic design of solid floors
To prevent building collapse in Nigeria, the
does not satisfy the probabilistic code’s
following should adhere to;
requirements (β=3-4, Ellinwood, 1982)
1. Reliability check should be carried out on
since the resistance provided by
every structural design to ascertain their
deterministic design cannot give the safety
level of safety.
level required by the code.
2. All concerned individuals in building
 Reliability analysis yields area of
construction should ensure that they acquire
reinforcement capable of resisting all load
adequate training and knowledge to
effect on the structure at the same time
understand the techniques of construction so
enhancing the structural safety of the two-
as to reduce and subsequently eliminate the
way slab. It also yields an economical
incidence of building collapse in the
design with a predetermined safety level (
country.
T  3 ) and failure probability which
3. The new equations obtained from code
deterministic design cannot give. calibration should be used for design of slab.
 The results of the sample run from FORM5 4. Corruption must be avoided.
revealed that all panels designed in this 5. The use of FORM is very essential in all
research can resist load effect comfortably engineering designs to pre-determine the
using the optimized values of the resistance safety index of structural elements.

16
Nigerian Institute of Civil Engineers (NICE) 11th International Conference & Annual General Meeting 2014

Theme: Civil Engineering: The Cradle of National Economic Growth

Therefore, it is recommended that the use of REFERENCES
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whether structural elements like two-way Singly Reinforced concrete Solid Slabs”.SEAM
slab satisfies the code’s safety requirements. proceedings, Vol. 2 pp 266- 275
6. Code calibration is another level of
Afolayan, J. O. (1992). “Reliability -Based
structural reliability which yields close
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results with FORM. Therefore, the new
Department of Civil Engineering, Ahmadu Bello
partial factors in the form: φ = 0.8, γ =
University, Zaria
1.2, γ = 2.2 Should be applied to both
concrete compression block and moment of Afolayan, J.O and Abejide, S.O. (2003) “
resistance of the two-way slab. The new Reliability-Based design of reinforced concrete
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 Nigerian Institute of Civil Engineers (NICE) 11th International Conference & Annual General Meeting 2014

Theme: Civil Engineering: The Cradle of National Economic Growth

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