Collapse of Prefabricated Panel Houses

The collapse of prefabricated panel houses can be caused by multiple factors, mainly including structural issues of the houses themselves, external triggers, and human factors.

Structural issues of the houses themselves are a significant factor: Many prefabricated panel houses were built a long time ago. For example, the Railway 55 Dormitory in Xinhua District, Shijiazhuang, was built in the 1980s. It has poor integrity and weak earthquake resistance, belonging to a brittle failure structure where local failure can trigger a chain collapse. When these houses were designed and constructed, due to the limitations of technology and materials at that time, there were certain defects in their structural stability. As time goes by, the houses age, and their structural performance further declines, increasing the risk of collapse.

External triggers cannot be ignored: In the Shijiazhuang incident, a suspected gas leak triggered an explosion, which became a trigger for the house collapse. In the case of the building collapse in Tongling Community, experts initially analyzed that heavy rain soaking the foundation might be the trigger. Gas leak explosions generate powerful shockwaves, causing severe damage to prefabricated panel houses with inherently unstable structures. Heavy rain soaking the foundation reduces the foundation's bearing capacity, leading to unstable house foundations and subsequent collapse.

Human factors are also crucial: The wall collapse incident on Chaozong Street in Changsha was caused by a combination of factors, including the weak legal awareness of the tenant of the involved house and the illegal and rough construction by the construction unit. During house renovation and decoration, non-standard construction operations, such as removing load-bearing structures and increasing loads, can disrupt the original structural balance of the house, reducing its stability and leading to collapse accidents. In addition, in the case of the prefabricated panel fracture in a house in Zhong County, Chongqing, the temporary stacking of loads on the second-floor slab exceeded the bearing capacity of the prefabricated panel, causing brittle fracture and fall of the slab. This also reflects the neglect of the house's bearing capacity during use, where randomly increasing loads can easily lead to safety accidents.