Engineering Essay Samples

Introduction

Engineering is a very sensitive career involving design and development of things utilized by people in everyday activities. Engineers create a variety of things such structures, buildings, vehicles and other gadgets. Engineers in the construction industry ensure buildings attain the required standards to ensure the safety of dwellers. However, poor designs and building techniques have led in many reported cases of buildings failing. A small mistake in the design process leads to a severe problem that causes major damages to the building and its occupants. The following paper discusses engineering mistakes that happened to the eight-storeys building that collapsed in Bangladesh.

What happened?

The unexpected collapse of the eight-storey building in Bangladesh happened in the morning at around 9.00 o’clock. The building was located at the center of Bangladesh capital city, Dhaka. Approximately 150 people died, and thousands injured while others got trapped in the rubble for many days. What mistake did engineers make that made the unexpected phenomenon happen? Engineers design a building and structures with a specific amount of load that it can support without causing major deformation. When designing a building, and engineer should take into account many loads. These include the weight of occupants, pressure due to blowing air, rain load, and loads of construction materials such as roofing, walls, and fittings (dead load). Calvert claimed the primary causes of building failure were faulty construction, bad design, extraordinary loads, unexpected calamities, and a combination of forces (1). After the collapse of the eight-floor building in Bangladesh, engineers went back to drawing board to establish what could have happened.
Experts realized that the engineers did substandard construction methods causing the collapse of the building. The faulty design is the number one cause of many structural failures experienced in the world today. Civil engineers inspecting the building realized that the foundation was not according to standards. Engineers had used uneven footing that could not support the weight of the building. The problem associated with poor foundations is common in developing countries. Unavailability of quality construction materials and poor economies make developing countries ignore major rules in building leading to calamities like the one experienced in Bangladesh. For example, most buildings are made up of low-quality steel because the real steel used in building huge structures is more costly. The civil and environmental engineer discovered that one edge of the building was built on a much softer soil compared to others, which made it settle down. Settling down on one edge made the building unstable and considering the amount of load acting on the building, it eventually collapsed (Than).
Secondly, the inspection team identified a crack on the top floors occupied by the factory. The plan for constructing a room for holding factory equipments requires the engineer to leave open spaces on the wall for ventilation. Engineers designing the building made floors with long spans with minimum reinforcement. The weight and motions in the factory created tension forces that made the building extend on either side causing big cracks on the wall. As Than argued, engineers make a mistake by not considering a different combination of loads and their distribution in the building.

Conclusion

Designers and builders of the Bangladesh building ignored vital information about construction standards leading to loss of many lives and properties. Engineers should take responsibility for their career and avoid small mistakes that cause significant impact to the society. The paper shows that faulty designs and poor construction methods contributed to the failure of Bangladesh eight-storey building.

Works Cited

Calvert, J. B. The collapse of buildings. 2002. Web
https://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/tech/failure.htm
Than, Ker. Bangladesh building collapse due to shoddy construction. April 26, 2013. Web April
1, 2015 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130425-bangladesh-dhaka-building-collapse-world/