Experimental Studies on Progressive Collapse Behavior of RC Frame Structures: Advances and Future Needs

Wei-Jian Yi,Fan Yi,Yun Zhou

doi:10.1186/s40069-021-00469-6

Wei-Jian Yi, Fan Yi + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1186/s40069-021-00469-6

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Abstract

In the recent two decades, the progressive collapse of reinforced concrete (RC) frame structures attracted unprecedented research interests in the structural engineering community. Experiments are regarded as an essential method in this field since actual cases can barely provide sufficient and effective data to support rigorous research. In this paper, prevailing experimental assumptions and configurations among over 100 series of experiments are quantitatively revealed by a bibliometric collection based on systematic search in an academic database. Since numerous experiments have been reported on the progressive collapse of RC frame structures, this paper subsequently presents a state-of-the-art review summarizing both experimental consensuses and controversies constituted by three main aspects: (a) static mechanisms, (b) dynamic behavior, and (c) threat-dependent research. The significance of secondary mechanisms, existing problems of dynamic effects, and potential flaws of the threat-independent assumption are discussed in detail with experimental findings. Future needs are emphasized on research targets, correlations between experiments and design, dynamic effects, threat-dependent issues, and retrofitting. These recommendations might help researchers or designers realize a more reliable and realistic progressive collapse design of RC frame structures in the future.

Highlights

If structural members failed under extreme loads like natural disasters, explosions, vehicle impacts, fires, etc., the local damage might be disproportionate to the final collapse scale, by which the term progressive collapse or disproportionate collapse is defined
Some of the most representative studies from different aspects like analytical theories, experimental studies, and numerical analyses have a profound influence on subsequent studies, for example, the simplified assessment framework proposed by Izzuddin et al (2008), and Vlassis et al (2008), the quasi-static experiment conducted
Despite some critical issues about the progressive collapse of reinforced concrete (RC) structures have been discussed by Qian and Li (2015), Adam et al (2018), Azim et al (2019), Alshaikh et al (2020), and Kiakojouri et al (2020), this review differs from these works by three aspects: (1) a statistics on existing experimental studies is first presented at this scale to facilitate both experienced and newly attracted researchers to tag classic and track latest works; (2) the progressive collapse behavior is discussed based on experimental findings, which could be helpful for quantification and further codification of load-resisting mechanisms, both primary and secondary, neither of which has been systematically digested by existing codes and design guidelines; and (3) the threatdependent assumption which attracted relative minor attention is emphasized

Summary

Introduction

If structural members failed under extreme loads like natural disasters, explosions, vehicle impacts, fires, etc., the local damage might be disproportionate to the final collapse scale, by which the term progressive collapse or disproportionate collapse is defined. Despite some critical issues about the progressive collapse of RC structures have been discussed by Qian and Li (2015), Adam et al (2018), Azim et al (2019), Alshaikh et al (2020), and Kiakojouri et al (2020), this review differs from these works by three aspects: (1) a statistics on existing experimental studies is first presented at this scale to facilitate both experienced and newly attracted researchers to tag classic and track latest works; (2) the progressive collapse behavior is discussed based on experimental findings, which could be helpful for quantification and further codification of load-resisting mechanisms, both primary and secondary, neither of which has been systematically digested by existing codes and design guidelines; and (3) the threatdependent assumption which attracted relative minor attention is emphasized

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