Abstract
Building progressive collapse is currently one of the hottest topics in the structural engineering field. Most of the research carried out to date on this topic has been focused on the structural analysis of the failure of one or more columns in a building to determine the Alternative Load Paths (ALPs) the structure can activate. Past research was mainly focused on extreme situations with high loads and large structural deformations and, to a lesser extent, research looked at lower loads used in design accidental situations, which requires a different set of assumptions in the analysis. This paper describes a study aimed at analysing accidental design situations in corner-column removal scenarios in reinforced concrete (RC) building structures and evaluating the available real ALPs in order to establish practical recommendations for design situations that could be taken into account in future design codes. A wide parametric computational analysis was carried out with advanced Finite Element (FE) models which the authors validated by full-scale tests on a purpose-built building structure. The findings allowed us to: (i) establish design recommendations, (ii) demonstrate the importance of Vierendeel action and (iii) recommend Dynamic Amplification Factors (DAFs) for design situations.
Highlights
Progressive collapse is one of the hottest topics in structural engineering [1,2]
Few experimental studies are available on reinforced concrete (RC) building structures, on purpose built full-scale structures subjected to sudden removal of columns [28,33]
The numerical outcomes are organized in subsections, each one dealing with a specific result: vertical displacements, horizontal drift, vertical reactions in different columns and tensile damage maps in the building
Summary
Progressive collapse is one of the hottest topics in structural engineering [1,2] In this field, many researchers have worked on independent-scenario approaches, considering the sudden removal of an element in buildings or bridges to study the consequences of an extreme event rather than studying the triggering causes of a progressive collapse. Many researchers have worked on independent-scenario approaches, considering the sudden removal of an element in buildings or bridges to study the consequences of an extreme event rather than studying the triggering causes of a progressive collapse These approaches can demonstrate (or not) that the structure has a minimum level of robustness and highlight potential areas for improvement, extracting conclusions to increase the resilience of a structure against accidental actions.
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