好英语网迈阿密公寓倒塌事故为何会发生？
The investigation into what may be the deadliest accidental building collapse in American history has just begun, but experts who have examined video footage of the disaster outside Miami are focusing on a spot in the lowest part of the condominium complex — possibly in or below the underground parking garage — where an initial failure could have set off a structural avalanche.
这可能是美国历史上最致命的建筑物意外倒塌，其调查才刚刚开始，不过，检查过迈阿密郊外这场灾难事故的视频片段的专家正在关注该公寓综合体最低部分的一个地方——可能在地下停车场或更往下——最初的损坏可能会引发结构性雪崩。
Called “progressive collapse,” the gradual spread of failures could have occurred for a variety of reasons, including design flaws or the less robust construction allowed under the building codes of four decades ago, when the complex was built. But that progression could not have occurred without some critical first failure, and close inspections of a grainy surveillance video that emerged in the initial hours after the disaster have given the first hints of where that might have been.
这被称为“渐进式倒塌”，损坏的逐渐蔓延可能出于多种原因，包括设计缺陷或是四十年前建造综合体时的建筑规范所允许的结构不够坚固。但是，这种渐进的发生必定存在某种最初的关键损坏，而对灾难发生后最初几个小时内出现的模糊监控视频的审查，已经初步暗示了它可能出现的地方。
“It does appear to start either at or very near the bottom of the structure,” said Donald O. Dusenberry, a consulting engineer who has investigated many structural collapses. “It’s not like there’s a failure high and it pancaked down.”
“它似乎从结构底部或非常接近底部开始，”曾调查过许多结构倒塌的咨询工程师唐纳德·O·杜森伯里(Donald O. Dusenberry)说。“并不像是高处出现问题然后逐渐压垮。”
The early examinations came as rescuers on Sunday spent a fourth day pushing through the enormous heap of debris created when half the 13-story building, Champlain Towers South, fell away early on Thursday. The death toll climbed to nine as additional remains were found, and more than 150 people remained unaccounted for.
13层高的尚普兰塔南大楼的一半于周四早些时候倒塌，周日已是救援人员在大楼倒塌造成的巨大的废墟中努力援救的第四天，而对视频的初期检查也是在这个时候进行。随着更多遗体被发现，死亡人数升至九人（截至本周二，死亡人数已上升至11人——编注），还有150多人下落不明。
While a number of bridges, overpasses and buildings under construction fail each year, the catastrophic collapse of an occupied building — absent a bomb or an earthquake — is rare, and investigators are struggling to understand how it could have come with so little urgent warning.
虽然每年都会有许多正在建设中的桥梁、立交桥和建筑物发生故障，但在没有炸弹或地震的情况下，有人居住的建筑物发生灾难性倒塌的情况极其少见，调查人员正在努力搞清楚为什么它在几乎没有预警的情况下发生。
“It would be like a lightning strike happening,” said Charles W. Burkett, the mayor of Surfside, Fla., where the collapse occurred. “It’s not at all a common occurrence to have a building fall down in America,” he said. “There was something very, very wrong with this situation.”
“这就像发生了雷击，”发生坍塌的佛罗里达州瑟夫赛德市市长查尔斯·W·伯克特(Charles W. Burkett)说。“在美国，建筑物倒塌并不常见，”他说。“这种情况非常、非常有问题。”
The National Institute of Standards and Technology, a federal agency, was sending scientists and engineers to do a preliminary review, hoping to identify and preserve materials that might help understand the collapse. Officials said they expected a number of local, state and federal agencies also to be involved in the inquiry, though it was not clear which agency would lead the effort.
联邦机构美国国家标准与技术研究所(The National Institute of Standards and Technology)正在派遣科学家和工程师进行初步审查，希望能够识别和保存可能有助于查明坍塌原因的材料。官员们表示，他们预计一些地方、州和联邦机构也将参与调查，但尚不清楚哪个机构将领导这项工作。
The search for an explanation comes with a sense of urgency not only for sister buildings near the complex but also for a broad part of South Florida, where a necklace of high-rise condos, many of them decades old, sits on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, enduring an ever-worsening barrage of hurricane winds, storm surge and sea salt.
寻找坍塌原因是个紧迫的问题，不仅关乎综合体附近的姊妹建筑，而且也关乎南佛罗里达州的广大地区，那里有一连串的高层公寓，其中许多已有几十年的历史，它们坐落在大西洋海岸边，经受着不断恶化的飓风、风暴潮的袭击和海盐的侵蚀。
Structural engineers were shocked that a building that had stood for decades would abruptly crumble on an otherwise unremarkable summer night.
令结构工程师感到震惊的是，一座屹立了几十年的建筑会在一个不起眼的夏夜突然倒塌。
But three years before the deadly collapse, a consultant found alarming evidence of “major structural damage” to the concrete slab below the pool deck and “abundant” cracking and crumbling of the columns, beams and walls of the parking garage under the building.
但在致命倒塌发生的三年前，一名顾问发现了令人担忧的证据，表明泳池木台下方的混凝土板存在“严重结构损坏”，建筑物下方停车场的柱子、横梁和墙壁年久失修，存在“大量”开裂。
While no definitive conclusions could be drawn from the surveillance video, which was shot from a distance and reveals only one perspective of the disaster, some of the engineers reviewing it last week said it seemed to suggest that the failure began at a specific point near the bottom of the structure — perhaps as far down as the parking garage beneath the building, or on the first few floors.
从监控视频中无法得出明确的结论，因为该视频是从远处拍摄的，只显示了灾难的一个角度，但上周审查该视频的一些工程师说，该视频似乎表明，故障始于结构底部附近的一个特定点——也许远至大楼下方的停车场，或在头几层。
From what can be seen in the video, part of the structure first slumped, seemingly falling vertically in one giant piece, as if the columns had failed beneath the southern edge of the center of the building, not far from the pool. Like a nightmarish avalanche, the failure quickly spread and brought down the entire center of the building. Seconds later, a large section to the east also toppled.
从视频中可以看到，大楼的一部分首先坍塌，似乎有一个巨大的部分垂直下落，好像是离水池不远的建筑中心南部边缘的支柱倒塌了。就像一场噩梦般的雪崩，坍塌迅速蔓延，使得整座建筑的中心倒塌。几秒钟后，东边的一大片也倒塌了。
Mr. Dusenberry, whose impressions matched those of several other structural engineers who examined the video, said such a failure “would suggest a foundation-related matter — potentially corrosion or other damage at a lower level.” But he said it was not certain that corrosion was the culprit, and added that “you certainly can’t rule out a design or construction error that has survived for 40 years.”
杜森伯里的印象与其他几位看过视频的结构工程师一致，他说这样的故障“可能表明地基存在相关问题——可能存在腐蚀或较低水平的其他损坏。”但他说，不能确定腐蚀是罪魁祸首，还说，“你当然不能排除存在了40年的设计或施工错误。”
Rick De La Guardia, an engineer based in Miami with experience in forensic investigation of building component failures, said that the collapse could have also started higher than the foundation, possibly on the second floor, based on his cursory review of the columns in the floor plans and his review of the video.
迈阿密工程师里克·德·拉·瓜尔迪亚(Rick De La Guardia)在建筑部件故障的司法调查方面有着丰富的经验，他说，根据他对平面图中的支柱的粗略审视和对视频的审查，坍塌的起点也可能高于地基，可能在二楼。
Explanations for an initial failure at the bottom of the building could include a problem with the deep, reinforced concrete pilings on which the building sits — perhaps set off by an unknown void or a sinkhole below — which then compromised the lower columns. Or the steel reinforcing the columns in the parking garage or first few floors could have been so corroded that they somehow gave way on their own. Or the building itself could have been poorly designed, built with substandard concrete or steel — or simply with insufficient steel at critical points.
建筑物底部最初出现故障的原因可能包括建筑物的深层钢筋混凝土桩的问题——可能是由下面的一个未知空洞或沉洞引起的——然后危及较低的支柱。或者是停车场或前几层加固支柱的钢筋被严重腐蚀，以至于自行脱落。也可能是建筑本身设计不当，使用了不合格的混凝土或钢材——或在关键部位没有使用足够钢材。
Evan Bentz, a professor of structural engineering at the University of Toronto, said that the best evidence so far had come from the video and some simple reasoning — pointing a finger of suspicion at the supporting columns in the underground parking garage.
多伦多大学结构工程教授埃文·本茨(Evan Bentz)说，迄今为止最有力的证据来自视频和一些简单推理，将怀疑指向了地下停车场的支撑柱。
“The primary purpose of all the columns in the basement is to hold the structure up in the air,” he said. “Because the structure stopped being held up in the air, the simplest explanation is that the columns in the basement ceased to function.”
“地下室所有支柱的主要作用是将整个建筑撑在空中，”他说。“因为建筑没有被托举在空中，最简单的解释就是地下室的支柱不再发挥作用。”