Building Failure Consequences

Abstract

The consequences of structural failures (caused by an accidental action) typically come in several forms: for example fatalities, injuries, structural damage, damage to contents, loss of functionality and environmental damage. When considering structural failures these consequences are often divided into two categories, direct and indirect consequences. The type of consequences considered, and whether they are considered direct or indirect consequences, is dependent on the system boundaries. These should be defined clearly at the onset of any consequence analysis. Once the direct and indirect consequences are identified and quantified these values could be used to assess a structure?s robustness, for example following the risk-based definition for this attribute suggested by Baker (2008). The consequences of failure vary significantly from structure to structure, and may depend on a wide range of factors, including: ? Nature of the hazard; ? Properties of the structure; ? Use/occupancy; ? Location; ? Meteorological conditions; ? Time frame over which the consequences are assessed; ? The scope of consequences considered (in a socio-economic context). As a result, the `cost of failure? is a multi-dimensional and highly variable quantity, a fact that is reiterated throughout the literature on the topic (Soltani and Corotis, 1988; Kanda and Shah, 1997). These factors are discussed further in the following sections, and the various types of consequences arising from building failures are examined. Additionally, this factsheet includes some suggested approaches for estimating some of these consequences. The methods and approaches reviewed herein are considered relevant to failure consequence analysis of general buildings and do not include buildings housing critical industrial facilities, such as nuclear power plants, chemical factories etc.