Brick to dust; reasons for building collapse in the modern world

on June 24 2021, a twelve story condo near Miami collapsed in a matter of seconds killing a large number of residents living in the area. The surfside condominium collapsed at approximately 1:25 a.m, the total number of recorded deaths is said to be about 98 persons. well some non-experts think that the cause of the collapse was due to the building's old age, the building was built 1981 and could be said to be old, but we should not forget this structures were built to withstand the test of time. This collapse is recorded to be one the most devastating in the countries history. Although this is not the only case of a catastrophic building collapse in human history, more and more buildings fail everyday and eventually collapse.

There are various reasons why building collapse, these reasons are rather simple but are very hard to solve;

RUST:

this has to be the major reason for building failure and collapse in the world. Rust is a process by which metals absorb moisture from their surrounding environment causing their durability to deteriorate drastically. During the rusting process the metal produces an extra layer causing the metal to increase about 7 times in size,this causes the concrete to crack making the building loose. other factors like water, wind, heat could in turn make the gaps to expand the more which would eventually lead to the destruction of the building. this process can occur any where, in the body or foundation of the building. But there has to be a solution to this, that's right there are solutions to the problem, but the probability of this solutions to last for a long time is still under debate. protective coatings, isolators, and corrosion inhibitors are used to prevent rusting in buildings.

WEAK MATERIALS:

we could say in this aspect, the building collapsed before it was even built. Gigantic buildings need a more improved and more durable structural materials, random materials can not be used to construct them well this is very obvious to every human on the planet. But some construction companies or engineers prefer to use less durable or effective materials because of how easy its is to come by and how cheap it is. They end up constructing buildings that have a shorter life span and would only hold a few amount of weight before it breaks down.

NATURAL CAUSES:

a building may also collapse due to natural disasters like earthquakes, land slides, erosion, tsunami, or frequent flooding. Buildings constructed on soft sand are very prone to sinking and eventually collapsing, this also goes for buildings constructed in an environment constantly exposed to erosion and flooding. Earthquakes cause movement at the building's foundation by generating waves across the ground, this energy is sent throughout the building's structure if the structure is unable to absorb the energy the building would eventually collapse. But buildings can be designed to withstand an earthquake, shock absorbers or seismic dampers are used to make buildings resistant to earthquakes. the dampers absorb the energy generated from the quakes thereby protecting the building from collapsing. A base isolation system is also used in most buildings to aid the survival of the building even after the earthquake. We should not forget the wind,heat, snow and storms have a major role to play also in this, heat causes the concrete to expand causing great cracks in the building, strong winds could cause the building to sway and eventually collapse, this is very common among countries with high winds, cyclone and hurricane.

The future of buildings is not yet at it's peak, it is obvious that it has a large room for improvement. but for now man is still focused in improving automobiles and the planet in general.