Grandstand collapse in the Netherlands

[bugbus]

A grandstand collapsed at NEC Nijmegen's stadium. No injuries.

The stadium was built in about 2000 sometime between 1998-1999.

https://youtu.be/y0ELP1ix7iw

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

that was some amount of deflection before it went on a relatively short span.

 

[LittleInch]

Also a massive amount of "live load" going on with that co ordinated jumping.

Stands like that are just not designed to withstand it. They assume people don't walk or jump in unison and most of the time they don't.

Failure in baloneys and other floors used a dance floors but never designed for it often fail. The floor in Israel a few years ago failed during a similar level of co ordinated dancing or jumping. Unfortunately more people died and were injured in that incidence.

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[Red Corona]

A sports stadium really should be built assuming the worst for coordinated crowd movements.

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

this effect has been known about for years.

Even as a spot youth we were told to break step when marching or running over a bridge in the army.

I think there is a natural frequency issue that was involved. I know because I made the FEA model for Glasgow rangers stands that normally the structural's do have a look at it. My remit was is it going to start bouncing when they start playing "simply the best" by Tina Turner and start bouncing. There is actually defined music rhythms for the Ibrox stands which they were actually quite tight with. And they had a condition monitoring sensor set up which would warn if anything started moving near natural frequency.

 

[bugbus]

Stands like that are just not designed to withstand it. They assume people don't walk or jump in unison and most of the time they don't.

My understanding is that stadium stands are specifically designed for this scenario. Even in the late 90s I assume that this was well established and would have been taken into account in the design.

If this had been an upper tier stand, the consequences could have been catastrophic. It’s really a stroke of luck that no one was injured.

Here’s another example, which didn’t collapse:

https://youtu.be/X50qwgBuXpY

 

[LittleInch]

Stands are designed for people to jump up and down for sure, that's what happens when your team score.

What I don't think they are really designed for is virtually the whole stand jumping up and down IN UNISON. That really is a huge live impact load.

So yes some stands will shake, especially if its a steel structure, but concrete? Not a good move

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[Alistair_Heaton]

they are mate, remember a lot of these stadiums are also used for music events.

They call it the bouncy in Scotland when the fans all start jumping in unison. Sometimes its the whole stadium does it. At ibrox I think the laod case was 45000 people at 80kg jumping at 0.1 hz or something like that.


Apparently life got much easier when the terraces were banned and everyone has to have seats after Hillsborough. Most of Europe still have terraces which apparently are completely different load profiles statically and dynamically.

 

[LittleInch]

OK, maybe it is part of the design, but still the stadium broke..

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Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

just had a google.

They are struggling with capacity.

Looking at the back wall I think the bit that broke is an expansion section which is basically a concrete bridge across supports with no real connection to the main part of the stand between the supports.

Ibrox may be special in the UK because of the number of disasters that have occurred there.

Back in the 70's when the last one occurred not through structural issues it had a capacity of 80k now its down to 50k all seating.

After Hillsborough, UK I suspect has the strictest stadium codes in Europe if not the world. So its more than likely the same sign offs are not required elsewhere. The model I did was for insurance premium reduction it went to Lloyds engineering for compliance verification.

Local building company that "does" concrete more than likely put it in. And used static loading cases or referred to road bridges possibly. Local council did the verification compliance and had the square root of zero experience of none road bridge sections if they even have that. Sounds a bit like the Miami bridge time line to be honest.

 

[Eufalconimorph]

1503-44, wrong thread.