BUILDING DEMOLITION SIMULATION

A PROJECT REPORT
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the
degree of

MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY

In

COMPUTER AIDED STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

Submitted by

TIMI THOMAS (AJC16CECS10)

Third Semester

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

AMAL JYOTHI COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

KANJIRAPPALLY, KERALA – 686518

AFFILIATED TO
APJ ABDUL KALAM TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

October 2017
 Department of Civil Engineering 2017

1. INTRODUCTION

With the development of the city construction, some old buildings need to be
removed. Controlled explosion is a very useful method to remove the abandoned
reinforced concrete structures comparing with the traditional or artificial methods. It has
been employed to remove the existing structures for a long time. But it is a kind of
dangerous work especially in the urban area. Any tiny mistake could lead to tragedies if
the building to be removed is surrounded by many other buildings and residents. So, the
explosion plan is very important in the controlled blasting project.

For the demolition process there is much structural analysis that goes into the removal
sequence. The structure must be checked for strength and stability at every planned
component removal, as the structural system, loads, and the load path will change.
Engineering is required because: 1) The work is performed by people, and their safety is
of utmost importance; every stage during the process needs to be analysed in detail, and
the important information clearly presented in the demolition plan drawings to be used in
the field. 2) The structure being removed is usually located near other structures; often
to-be-demolished highway bridge structures are in close proximity to other structures.
Sometimes, the structure being removed is in the direct vicinity of the travelling public.
The demolition sequence and stability of the structure at every stage should be analysed
and the safety of the proximity structures and the people should be ensured.

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2. LITERATURE REVIEW

H. M. Helmy et. al. (2012). Perna Seca Hospital in is a sixteen story reinforced
concrete structure in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with a total area of more than 25,000 m2.
Due to financial issues, the owner used only one half of the structure and left the other
half unused. Over time, the unused half suffered severe deterioration and it became
necessary to demolish it for the safety of the patients and employees of the occupied
half. Before demolition, the contractor manually demolished a 15-meter strip between
the two halves to completely separate them. A nonlinear dynamic analysis using the
Applied Element Method (AEM) was used to verify and optimize the demolition
plans. AEM is a structural analysis technique that has the capability to study the
behaviour of the structure before, during, and after collapse. AEM can predict the
mode of failure, time of failure, direction of failure, forces induced in different
elements of the structure during failure, as well as the velocity of flying debris and
ground vibrations due to its impact with ground.

The reinforcement of the various structural components of the demolished wings

experienced corrosion to different degrees, ranging from 20% to 30%. This corrosion
was simulated in the model as a reduction in yield stress. The implosion sequence
proposed by the demolition contractor: the columns are removed in the sequence in
the basement, first, second, technical, fourth, seventh, and tenth floor with a time
interval of 0.6 seconds. Column removal began in block B in the basement, first,
second, technical, fourth, seventh, and tenth floors from the left to the right. Column
removals in block A began at 3.3 seconds in both the first and second floors and they
go from down to top.

The analytical results showed that AEM is a very good tool for simulating the
structural progressive collapse. The analysis results agreed very well with the actual
collapse of the hospital. The analysis also showed that the impacting debris of the
demolished wings with the ground had a minor effect on the remaining wings of the
hospital.

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John A. Gambatese (2003) evaluated the use of a soundless chemical demolition

agent (SCDA) for performing controlled concrete demolition on a small scale. SCDAs
are powdery materials similar to Portland cement that consist primarily of lime
(calcium oxide, CaO). Substances such as aluminum oxide (AL2O3), magnesium
oxide (MgO), ferrous oxide (Fe2O3), silica (SiO2), and calcium fluoride (CaF2) are
commonly added to affect and control the rate of hydration of the SCDA slurry. The
destructive power of SCDAs is generated when the material is mixed with water and
hydrates within a confined space. Holes are drilled into the concrete and filled with a
slurry made from SCDA and water. The slurry begins to hydrate, generating heat and
crystallizing. The crystallization process expands the material and exerts significant
expansive forces that fracture the surrounding concrete. After the SCDA has
completely hydrated and cracking of the concrete occurs. They do not make noise,
explode, or generate fly rock, vibration, or toxic fuels.

The guidelines provided are: maximum hole diameter 5 38.1 mm; hole depth
should be 4–10 times the hole diameter; in reinforced concrete, the hole depth should
be 85–90% of the concrete depth for complete cracking; when the concrete perimeter
is confined, drill holes at an angle; lower water temperatures should be used for
higher concrete temperatures. Reinforced concrete blocks measuring 152.4 x 152.4 x
76.2 mm deep were cast in laboratory setting. The blocks were reinforced with one
layer of #3 steel reinforcing bars consisting of two bars in each direction arranged in a
grid pattern. The bars were supported to provide 19.1 mm of cover on the bottom, and
38.1 mm of cover on the top. The test blocks were cured for 28 days, at which time
the blocks were cleaned and prepared for the application of the SCDA. Holes were
drilled into the blocks with an electric drill and concrete drill bits. The hole depths,
diameters, spacing, and pattern were varied to test how these parameters affected the
resulting cracking. After drilling was complete, the holes were cleaned to remove all
dust and debris. The SCDA are of two types - type R, which is applied as a liquid, and
type S, which is of putty consistency. Type S was selected for this study.

The results indicate that SCDA can effectively crack concrete on a small scale.
Cracking can be attained with hole diameters as small as 3.18 mm. Cracking was
shown to develop with hole depth-to-diameter ratios (L/D) ranging from 6 to 12, and

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hole spacing-to-diameter ratios (S/D) ranging from 4 to 10. , the maximum amount of
cracking generally occurred with 6.35 mm diameter holes and at the fastest rates ~one
or two days. More closely spaced holes result in development of cracks earlier and
greater percent of the concrete being destroyed. Increasing the hole diameter leads to
earlier development of cracks and amount of crack migration.

Tarek A. Awida (2002). The partial demolition and the construction of the new
interface building for Kuwait Medical College were done during the normal use of the
remaining part of the Medical College building. The part of the MC building to be
demolished consisted of three structural levels; the remaining part of MC consists of six
structural levels. It is structurally connected to the remaining part of the building in the
west direction without an expansion joint, while there are two expansion joints in the
north and south directions. There is no basement in this part of MC.

The demolition process was done in three steps, taking into consideration the
problems encountered from the site survey. All safety measures before, during, and after
the demolition process were taken so as to be certain that there were no effects on the
remaining part of MC, especially since it is continuously in service during the works.
The demolition work was done by a specialist contractor who had more than 10 years of
experience in this field. The demolition steps were as follows: Step 1: Demolition for the
structural elements (slabs, beams, and columns) that are away from the remainder of the
MC building and have no effect on its structural elements. This step represents about
80% of the demolition works. Step 2: Construction of the permanent supports for the
beams that will be cut at midspan. Step 3: Cutting the connected beams at the midspan
by saw, just after the construction of the new supporting columns. Demolition of all
related slabs and columns adjacent to the remaining part of MC was done. This step
represents the remaining 20% of the demolition works.

Xianglin Gu et. Al (2000) proposed a numerical simulated model based on the

Discrete Element Method (DEM) for reinforced concrete frame structures demolished by
controlled explosion, and a corresponding computer program, which simulates the whole
collapsing process of the building by controlled explosion, was developed with C++
language.

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 Department of Civil Engineering 2017

Computer simulation for reinforced concrete structures demolished by controlled

explosion is one of the useful ways in designing blasting plans. With the help of the
computer simulation software, engineers can easily optimize the controlled blasting plan
to minimize the influence of the explosion to the environment. In order to simulate the
collapse process of a building, a numerical simulated model based on the discrete
element method for reinforced concrete frame structures is proposed. The computer
simulation software was also developed which can analyse the whole process from the
preliminary treatment to the graphic demo for the building to be demolished by
controlled blasting. The software is mainly composed of three parts: modelling,
numerical calculation and graphic demo. All of these three parts are supported by the
category library, which can be easily extended in the future for the purpose of the
modification. The program is compiled using C++ language. The function of this part is
to display the whole collapse process of the structure under blasting including the details
of the movement of elements and the breaking of steel bars. The display mode can be
automatic (automatically display continuing cartoon pictures) or artificial (display
pictures step by step controlled by observers).

The principle of controlled explosion for building structures is that some critical
points of the structure are disconnected first by the explosion, then the whole structure
collapses by its own weight because the force transfer system of the structure is damaged
in the explosion. The suitability of the simulation method proposed in this paper for
demolishing reinforced concrete frame buildings under controlled blasting is verified
through the comparison between the simulation results and the information recorded in
an actual blasting site for a 16 story high-rise concrete structural building located in
downtown Shanghai, China. The results of the computer simulation and the actual
explosion for a real building located in downtown Shanghai have good match.

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REFERENCE

H. M. Helmy et. al; (2012), “Numerical Simulation of Demolition of Perna Seca

Hospital using the Applied Element Method”, Structures Congress 2012 © ASCE 2012.

John A. Gambatese (2003), “Controlled Concrete Demolition Using Expansive Cracking

Agents”, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management., 2003, 129(1): 98-104.

Tarek A. Awida (2002), “Partial Demolition and Extension of Kuwait Medical College
Building”, Journal of Architectural Engineering., 2002, 8(1): 2-6.

Xianglin Gu and Chen Li (2013), “Computer Simulation for Reinforced Concrete

Structures Demolished by Controlled Explosion”, Computing in Civil and Building
Engineering (2000).

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