Download or read book Design, Inspection, Maintenance, Life Cycle Performance and Integrity of Building Facades written by Saviz Moghtadernejad and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Facades mounted on the exterior of buildings protect the interior from aggressive environments, besides contributing to their aesthetics and technical performance. Unfortunately, despite some serious facade failures involving some deaths and injuries, their inspection and maintenance, which are essential for public safety, have been generally ignored. On July 16, 2009, a large concrete facade element, weighing 320 kg, detached from the building structure of a Montreal hotel and fell on its exterior sidewalk cafe, instantaneously killing a young woman celebrating her birthday and injuring her husband. Some major U.S. cities, such as New York, Chicago and Boston have learnt from such tragedies, and nine American cities have enacted by-laws or ordnances requiring mandatory periodic facade inspections to ensure public safety. However, Canadian cities do not have similar stringent regulations to guide design, construction, maintenance and life-cycle performance of facades to ensure their safety over service life. The National Building Code of Canada (NBCC) includes safety provisions for building components which implement environmental separation; however, the NBCC and other relevant CSA standards do not deal adequately with the maintenance, performance and durability issues related to the performance of these facades. This research program is an attempt to develop and recommend strategies to minimize these risks through mandatory inspection and maintenance programs, and to eliminate similar tragedies from occurring in the future." --