Concrete and Steel Tower Falls Over Without Any Warning | Plainly Difficult

On 27th June, 2009 Block 7, of the Lotus Riverside Complex, In Shanghai, China, toppled over sideways, taking the life of one worker named Xiao Ling.

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[PlainlyDifficult]

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[BYAK_BYAK]

"Silt and clay on top of a fine sand" Im not an engineer, but it is a scary combination of words for me.

[martentrudeau]

The old English saying; "Haste makes Waste", the old carpender's saying: "Measure twice and Cut once." And Jack Bergman's saying; “There's never enough time to do it right, but there's always enough time to do it over.”

[davidjb]

I'm predicting the 301st episode will be a disaster 😂

[caloyvictor]

"Tofu-dreg project" is a phrase used in the Chinese-speaking world to describe a poorly constructed building, sometimes called just "Tofu buildings".

[helenrushful]

I was there when they were building it, it was opposite the apartment I lived in. The foundations were rusty AF before they even started it, the concrete was poured on site by hand, with lots of exposed steel. I actually found a sample and took it back to the uk to use to show students how NOT to make rebar (there was zero vanadium in it, and it was really low quality, contaminated steel. I’m an architect and was involved in a few big projects at the time, I learn that the soil structure of Shanghai is not suitable for a city of its size. It’s sinking. And their draining of the underground water (aquifers) was making things worse. A lot of infrastructure in China has been built using poor quality cement and steel, hence the huge numbers of failed structures.

[reginal.]

300 episodes of admittedly horrible things that really happened, but told in a way that is at once: accessible, respectful, and, even with the serious subject matter, with the occasional joke and "dodgy" cartoons (which we are all here for!) Here's to the next 300 episodes, and may you crack the million mark soon! You sure earned it! Have a great weekend, my dude!

[dwj]

On the back of the building it said, “if you can read this sign I’ve fallen over”

[happybluecat]

Thank goodness you're here the tower block's fainted!

[lucasmetzger]

Civil engineer here.

The abstract of the ASCE report states “Deep-seated slip failure of the stockpile applied an impact load on the building and immediately produced an unallowable overturning moment around the south building edge; consequently, the building suddenly fell over southward.”

When slip failure occurs, the soil has to go somewhere. With a deep slip failure like this, the failing soil would be slipping beneath the neighboring soil, displacing it and causing uplift. This likely created a horizontal AND upward force on the underside of the north side of the building, causing the building to topple to the south.

Extra physics fun:
In physics and by extension engineering, a “moment” is the rotational effect of a force, acting about an axis. A moment is produced when an axis of rotation exists (a fixed point that would resist a force) and a force is applied but not applied directly to the point where the axis exists. A moment’s value comes from the force multiplied by the perpendicular distance to the axis point, or “lever arm.” In this case, the axis of rotation would be along the ground where the south face of the building is in contact with the ground, spanning the entire width of the south face. This is consistent with ASCE’s analysis. ASCE have the ability to run simulations as well and clearly determined this failure method to either be the most likely, or the only possible scenario.

[cynic]

I’m impressed the building stayed in tact so well. Generally when you see a building collapse it’s a pile of rubble not just a building sideways.

Building looks drunk.

[SINAPPS]

"Un not arrested" going to steal that! Congrats Jon, ive been loving your work for years!

[BenKonosky]

Fatague was definitely an issue, that building was so tired it had to lie down.

[CoopaCoop]

Buildings named Tower 7 always seem to be randomly collapsing

[dnlmachine]

Bart: "What happened?"
Milhouse: "First it started falling over"
Bart: "Yeah?"
Milhouse: "Then it fell over"

[railgap]

For so many of these, I think the old Clarke & Dawe routine, "The Front Fell Off" could be refitted perfectly...
"I'm not saying it wasn't safe, but some of them are built so they don't fall over at all."

[teamidris]

No rebar in the piles. But, flood plane, so basically a concrete block on stilts in custard :o

[mreldon]

Congratulations! How about a 300th episode dedicated to your love of trains? Geek out for us to geek out with you!

[atoriusv]

2:32 As soon as I saw this, I went "NOPE! That's gonna be You HAVE to give buildings solid foundations with something underneath to push against, and clay/soft sand is definitely not solid or secure. It'll sink on one side and then fall over. Especially when you add a giant earthen berm to push on one side of the building's foundations. Then it gets rained on and slides into the bottom of the building due to wet soil having no sheer resistance, pushing even harder and allowing it to tip over because the foundation anchor rods are compromised and cannot give sufficient strength to support the structure.

[sara.gem.n.L]

John, your terminology always hits home with me: "Eight of them would be un-not-arrested and charged."
Spectacular 🧐👌