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LUMINARS ENGINEERS ASSOCIATION

INVESTIGATION REPORT ON COLUMN CRACK

OF
NZN FASHION WEARS LTD.
150 Iqbal road , Patherghata , Kotwali in Chittagong.

Report Prepared By :

Luminars Engineer's Ltd.

10th June , 2016

Luminars Engineers Association

Chittagong Office:56,Jibon Bima Bhaban,Agrabad,Chittagong, Bangladesh,. Phone: +8801857640565,+8801827424211,+8801714289454

LUMINARS ENGINEERS ASSOCIATION

1. Background:
During ACCORD visit on 2nd June 2016 ,a column of NZN Fashion Wear Ltd have
been found in cracked condition by an ACCORD engineer, which was later confirmed
as a structural crack after removal of plaster. After discussing with the garments
official, it was found that the column was hit by a truck while taking turn in the
premises. Objectives of the report areto find a solution to retrieve the column strength
to avoid accident as well as to provide safety measures during construction.
2. Description of the Building:
Under Pacific Jeans Ltd., NZN Fashion Wear Ltd., located in 150, Iqbal Road,
Patherghata, Kotwali in Chittagong is a five storied RCC ordinary moment resisting
frame (OMRF) building. The building got approval from Chittagong Development
Authority (CDA) in early 1984. As per verbal information, this building was
constructed in the year 1980 to be used as industrial purposes. Currently building is
used as garment industry. A part of the ground floor has been used for cold storage
and associated plant, while the 1st floor is being used for finishing, Cutting & dry
process], the 2nd and 3rd floors for sewing and 4th floor for dining, prayer room &
accessories store. At each level, a small portion of the floor area is used for office
spaces and ancillary purposes (change room, locker room, toilets etc.). There are a
number of partial mezzanine levels between ground and first floor.
The NZN Fashion Wear Ltd. can be categorized as cast-in-place reinforced-concrete
frame structure. The plan dimension of the building is 107 ft by 98 ft. The typical
floor area of this building is approximately 10486 sft. The diaphragms are cast-inplace reinforced-concrete slabs at each floor. The typical floor height of the building
is 10 ft. The typical grid spacing of the building is 22-6 x 9-6. The sizes of interior
columns are found as 10 x 10, 15 x 15, 15 x 18 and 18 x 20, while for
exterior columns are with 10 x 10, 15 x 15, 15 x 18and corner columns of
the building are found as 10 x 10 and 15 x 18, respectively. The beam sizes are
found as 10 x 15, 10 x 20, 15 x 20 and 15 x 22, respectively, for interior
beam in shorter span (9-8), interior beam in longer span (22-0), 2nd largest span
(28-7) and the largest span (31-6). The typical slab thickness is found as 5 inch.
A cantilever of 6 ft length is found along eastward direction.

Luminars Engineers Association

Chittagong Office:56,Jibon Bima Bhaban,Agrabad,Chittagong, Bangladesh,. Phone: +8801857640565,+8801827424211,+8801714289454

LUMINARS ENGINEERS ASSOCIATION

3. Description of the problem:
The size of the column in which cracks has formed is 15x18 and height is 15-0.
Location of the column is shown in figure 1. For detail investigation plaster around
the crack has been removed, from which it is seen that the crack has propagated from
the surface to the inner part of the column. Width of the crack was found to be around
1mm.Steel reinforcements were found partially corroded. Concrete of the column was
found to be porous. This is mainly due to the poor construction material, high water
cement ratio and the less compaction of the concrete during construction. From the
investigation it can be concluded that, corrosion of the rebar is the main reason for the
crack, which is a very common phenomenon for the buildings of this region due to
exposure to coastal environment. The crack has been shown in figure.2.

Figure 1: Location of Column

Figure 2: Column crack

Luminars Engineers Association

Chittagong Office:56,Jibon Bima Bhaban,Agrabad,Chittagong, Bangladesh,. Phone: +8801857640565,+8801827424211,+8801714289454

LUMINARS ENGINEERS ASSOCIATION

4. Material Strength:
From the DEA report concrete core strength was found as 1600 psi for the building.
Concrete jacketing is suggested for the column, where the fc for the new concrete is
suggested to be 3000 psi. Due to confining effect, strength of the core concrete
generally increases, though it depends on the degree of confinement. In this revise
analysis an average of 2000 psi was considered as concrete strength. Yield strength of
steel fy=60000 is considered as the existing reinforcements effect was neglected in
the analysis.
5. Loads:
Live load considered in the analysis is 63 psf and load combinations are as per BNBC.

6. Analysis& Design:
DEA report for this building has been submitted to ACCORD by CUET. From the
report it is seen that, retrofitting was suggested for the cracked column, as the capacity
of the column was found inadequate to resist the design load. A revise analysis has
been done considering the cracked condition, where effect of existing reinforcement
was neglected due to the corrosion of the existing reinforcement. From the analysis it
is found that design loads for the column are P=348 Kip, M2=40 Kip-ft & M3= 140
Kip ft.
For retrofitting design IS 15988:2013 was followed and for column design reciprocal
load method was followed. Retrofitting design section of the column and calculations
are shown in figure 3& figure 4.

7.5"

7.5"

2" 2"
1 of 12(new) 20mm steel
8 mm tie @ 3" c/c

1'

2'-2"

3" 2" 2"

2" 2"

Old Concrete

2" 2" 3"

10mm shear connector @ 8"c/c (vertical)

Beam Line

23"

Figure: 3. Revised Column Section

Luminars Engineers Association

Chittagong Office:56,Jibon Bima Bhaban,Agrabad,Chittagong, Bangladesh,. Phone: +8801857640565,+8801827424211,+8801714289454

LUMINARS ENGINEERS ASSOCIATION

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Figure: 4: Column design calculation
7. Work Procedure:
Before retrofitting technique is carried out, loads on column need to reduce or even eliminate
temporarily which can be done by the following steps:
1. Putting mechanical jacks between floors.
2. Putting additional props between floors.
3. Moreover, in some cases, where corrosion in the reinforcement steel bars was found,
the following steps should be carried out:
4. Remove the concrete cover.
5. Clean the steel bars using a wire brush or sand compressor.
6. Coat the steel bars with an epoxy material that would prevent corrosion.
If there was no need for the previous steps, the jacketing process could start by the following
steps:
1. Adding steel connectors into the existing column in order to fasten the new stirrups of
the jacket in both the vertical and horizontal directions at spaces not more than
50cm.Those connectors are added into the column by making holes 3-4mm larger
than the diameter of the used steel connectors and 10-15cm depth. (For detail see the
design attached)
2. Filling the holes with an appropriate epoxy material then inserting the connectors into
the holes.
3. Adding vertical steel connectors to fasten the vertical steel bars of the jacket
following the same procedure in step 1 and 2.

Luminars Engineers Association

Chittagong Office:56,Jibon Bima Bhaban,Agrabad,Chittagong, Bangladesh,. Phone: +8801857640565,+8801827424211,+8801714289454

LUMINARS ENGINEERS ASSOCIATION

4. Installing the new vertical steel bars and stirrups of the jacket according to the
designed dimensions and diameters.
5. Coating the existing column with an appropriate epoxy material that would guarantee
the bond between the old and new concrete.
6. Pouring the concrete of the jacket before the epoxy material dries. The concrete used
should be of low shrinkage and consists of small aggregates, sand, cement and
additional materials to prevent shrinkage.

The previous steps are illustrated in Fig 5. A picture of practical retrofitting works shown
for proper demonstration in figure 6.

Figure:5. Increasing the cross-sectional area of column by RC jacketing

Luminars Engineers Association

Chittagong Office:56,Jibon Bima Bhaban,Agrabad,Chittagong, Bangladesh,. Phone: +8801857640565,+8801827424211,+8801714289454