Lessons from the Avianca

fire in Bogota, Colombia

Post-fire investigations
provide a tribute to
concrete

BY RICHARD C. ELSTNER
WISS JANNEY ELSTNER ASSOCIATES
NORTHBROOK, ILLINOIS
JAIME MORENO
MATERIAL SERVICE CORPORATION
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
AND
DOMENICO PARMA
DOMENICO PARMA ASSOCIATES
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
SOUTH AMERICA

notable fire occurred in

A the Avianca Building in

Bogota, Colombia on July
23, 1973. At approximately
8:30 a.m. on Monday morning fire
was discovered in a file room on the
Spalling of mild-steel reinforced slab

fourteenth floor.
The fire raged for twelve hours,
jumping upward from floor to floor.
This upward spread was made pos-
sible as flames engulfed the outer
walls so that heat fractured the win-
dows well above the fire line and al-
lowed flames to move into higher
s t o ri e s. No flame spread occurred
through the stairwell, elevator
shafts or air ducts. The fire con-
sumed nearly the entire contents of
24 floors but bypassed two unoccu-
pied floors which remained undam-
aged.
The structure and its contents
were typical of office buildings com- Repaired column and cantilevered beam
monly seen in New York, London,
Moscow, Hong Kong and elsewhere Bogota requested that the structural engineers can now design concrete
so the potential for a similar fire is designer, Domenico Parma, con- s t ru c t u res for fire endurance as
not confined to Bogota. duct an investigation to evaluate the readily as they design for static and
s t ru c t u ral integrity of the building dynamic loads. The techniques are
A key investigation and, if feasible, program its repair known as the Rational Design
After the fire the administrators of and reconstruction. Method.*
the Avianca Building and the Office The extensive investigation which The investigation has re q u i re d
of the Se c re t a ry of Public Works in followed substantiates the fact that more than 30,000 man-hours thus
far in a team effort headed by
Domenico Parma in collaboration
with the office of Wiss Janney Elst-
ner and Associates; the architects,
Esguerra Saenz Urdaneta Samper;
the Colombian National University
at Bogota; and the Colombian Air-
lines Avianca, general contractors.
Both the fire and the investigation
which followed are of particular in- Over 100 people were
terest to the concrete industry be- taken off the roof by
cause the structural system of this helicopters. Only four
38-story concrete building includes people lost their lives in
concrete in several forms: precast- this holocaust.
p re s t ressed joists, mild-steel rein-
forced solid slabs and cast-in-place
post-tensioned beams and girders.
Four structural systems have
been integrated into the building.
These are described in the order of
their importance:
The main frame, composed of
eight large columns with massive
girders located every seven or
eight floors, is designed to resist
unnecessary to replace the struc- directly exposed to fire but little
the lateral loads produced by
ture, though one interior column where it had not. In the prestressed
earthquakes. The girders are rein-
near the fire origin had lost 20 per- joists the prestress force was 11,000
forced with mild steel and post-
cent of its gross area and was re- pounds where the strand had been
tensioned to meet certain con-
built. But the visual examination did exposed to fire, 16,000 pounds
struction requirements and also
reveal widespread, heavy spalling where not exposed in areas of worst
produce permanent partial pre-
from the bottom surfaces of the spalling; but it exceeded the design
stress.
floor system, the cast-in-place slab, requirement of 20,000 pounds in ar-
Floors typically consist of four the pre c a s t - p re s t ressed joists and eas of average spalling. In post-ten-
t ra n s verse 20-foot cantileve re d the major cantilevered beams. Also, sioning steel, even where spalling
beams post-tensioned by a strand the prestressed joists had abnormal had revealed the metal tube the
and grout system designed to car- vertical and diagonal cracks of hair- measured forces were 17,400 and
ry the floor system. line or slightly greater width. The ar- 17,800 pounds, about equal to the
eas in which cast-in-place one-way design value of 17,500. A structural
I-joists, precast-prestressed, were
slabs had been used were generally response test was made at 25 loca-
placed before casting the post-ten-
badly deflected. The steel trusses in tions on each of the 24 damaged
sioned beams.
the roof had buckled and under- floors.
An area of slab reinforced with gone serious deflections. It was esti- In a structural response test, in
mild steel accommodates part of mated that 75 percent of the floor- which amplitude, frequency of vi-
the mechanical systems. ing system needed replacement. bration and damping chara c t e ri s-
Detailed examination of materi- tics of beams are measured, a gener-
The roof is an independent struc- als, structural components and the al lack of stiffness was found in the
ture constructed of steel trusses and floor system in general revealed no p re c a s t - p re s t ressed joist areas. By
a cast-in-place post-tensioned slab. significant reduction in concrete this time it was decided that only 30
Most of the concrete used in this strength and no major cracking. percent of the floor system needed
building was 5000-psi normal Conventional reinforcement that replacement rather than the 75 per-
weight concrete. had undergone severe exposure had cent originally estimated.
a four percent decrease in yield
Results of the investigation strength, but a residual strength that *A seminar on Design of Structures for Fire
A visual examination of the struc- well exceeded the design value of Endurance by the Rational Design Method
was presented to the Structural Engineers
ture revealed that columns and ma- 60,000 psi. Samples of 12-inch pre- Association of Illinois in March 1974 by
jor framing members had sustained stressing strand had lost 50 percent A.H. Gustaferro, The Consulting Engineers
small enough damage to make it in tensile strength where it had been Group, Glenview, Illinois.
 Finally load tests were made on
specific areas of six floors. Results
demonstrated that there was still
sufficient load-carrying capacity,
and the 30 percent replacement es-
timate of the floor system was fur-
ther revised to only 7 percent.
Repair requirements a
tribute to concrete
The conclusions reached in the
Wiss Janney Elstner investigation
are given at the end of this article.
From these conclusions Wiss Janney
Elstner made specific recommenda-
tions for the repair of the structure,
areas to be replaced and techniques
to be used in the repair.
Cosmetic repairs are now being
made in which concrete is patched
with mortar containing a bonding
agent. The solid mild-steel rein-
forced slab on the typical floors is
being reconstructed. Concrete and
reinforcement are being removed
around the joists supporting the sol-
id slab. Then the slab is removed
and recast to obtain monolithic
conditions between the floors and
columns. Some floor areas which
p e rf o rmed satisfactorily during the
load tests but where stiffer service-
ability conditions are required, are
being improved. Post-tensioned
joists are being cast to improve stiff-
ness and redistribute loads.
On the basis of this investigation,
the reasons for the remarkable be-
havior of the structure can be as-
signed to the following characteris-
tics of design:
the massiveness of the concrete
members of the main stru c t u ra l
system which, by absorbing large
amounts of heat, maintained com-
paratively low temperatures in the
strand and reinforcement
the use of grouted post-tensioned
tendons, since the steel tubing and
grout helped to protect the strands
in the tendons
the good detailing and stru c t u ra l
continuity of the precast elements
in which no collapse occurred, al-
though severe damage occurred in
some areas
The results of this investigation
bring into question the traditional
fire test as a basis for assigning fire
endurance classifications as com-
pared to the actual behavior of
s t ru c t u res during fires. Significant
research conducted by the Portland
Cement Association, Pre s t re s s e d
Concrete Institute and others now
enables the engineer to design
structures for fire endurance by the
Rational Design Method to provide
safer and more economical con-
crete structures.
Condition of Avianca Building
after the fire, as summarized
by Wiss Janney Elstner and
Associates
Fire load. This was typical of what
can be expected in a high-rise office
building.
Se ve rity of fire. Exposure of the
structure to fire had been severe.
General damage. Damage from the
fire was directly proportional to the
fire load.
Protection by plaster. The gypsum
plaster on all columns fully protect-
ed them except for minimal areas of
minor spalling.
Damage to pre s t re s s i n g . Major
damage to prestressing occurred
only where spalling of concrete ex-
posed the strand during the fire.
Such areas were minimal.
Loss of prestress. Prestress design of
the structure was only slightly con-
servative on the basis of the Ameri-
can Concrete Institute Building
Code. Loss in prestress force mea-
sured was actually less than losses
initially determined to be accept-
able for design.
Damage to joists. Cracking of joists
and reduction of their continuity at
supports was probably caused by
the fact that the joist system cooled
more rapidly than the heavy frame
of the structure. Load tests proved
the structural safety of the joists but
it was recommended that the joist
floor system be stiffened.
Damage to cast-in-place slabs.
Cast-in-place mild-steel reinforced
slabs exposed to extreme conditions
of fire were badly deflected and suf-
fered heavy spalling.
Effect of molds on concrete perfor-
mance. Concrete that had been cast
in steel molds suffered less spalling
than the concrete cast in wood
forms.
This article was edited by Jaime
Moreno, one of the authors, from a
paper presented in late May at the VII
Congress of the Federation Interna-
tionale de la Precontrainte organized
by the Prestressed Concrete Institute,
in New York City.
PUBLICATION #C740409
Copyright 1974, The Aberdeen Group
All rights reserved