On Nov 7, 8:17*pm, "HeyBub" wrote:
Tony wrote:
jeff_wisnia wrote:
A more complete set of photos of this June's Shanghai building
collapse and diagrams explaining what happened and why.

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/bldg_fall/

I'm glad I don't live there, I'd never remember which apartment is
mine, they all look alike, even the ones that are different look very
*similar. Well if the flat one was my building I suppose I could pick
it out of the rest.

What is with the hollow pilings? *They really look weak with a little
bit of steel wire mesh in them. *Hollow? *Would it have happened if it
were steel I beams encased in concrete?

For the same amount of material, a tube is stronger than a solid cylinder..

Dig, dig, dig. The hollow piling is stronger for its intended load.
The hollow tube piling has greater bearing capacity. The woulda/
coulda/shoulda Monday morning quarterbacking stuff is stupid. The
excavation and the heavy rains are what caused the building to fall.
Note the other buildings did not fall.

I know nothing of the seismic activity in the area, climate (read
typhoon, etc), so it is pointless to speculate whether the design was
adequate or not. If a contractor undermines a foundation, whatever
the design, it will fail.

R