Effect of seismic design level on safety against progressive collapse of concentrically braced frames

Abstract

In this research the effect of seismic design level as a practical approach for progressive collapse mitigation and reaching desired structural safety against it in seismically designed concentric braced frame buildings was investigated. It was achieved by performing preliminary and advanced progressive collapse analysis of several split-X braced frame buildings, designed for each seismic zone according to UBC 97 and by applying various Seismic Load Factors (SLFs). The outer frames of such structures were studied for collapse progression while losing one column and connected brace in the first story. Preliminary analysis results showed the necessity of performing advanced element loss analysis, consisting of Vertical Incremental Dynamic Analysis (VIDA) and Performance-Based Analysis (PBA), in order to compute the progressive collapse safety of the structures while increasing SLF for each seismic zone. In addition, by sensitivity analysis it became possible to introduce the equation of structural safety against progressive collapse for concentrically braced frames as a function of SLF for each seismic zone. Finally, the equation of progressive collapse safety as a function of bracing member capacity was presented.