W-section steel columns energy criteria considering beams for progressive collapse analysis

Abstract

Recent studies indicate that the column buckling energy as a necessary but not a sufficient criterion, and the column failure energy as a sufficient criterion can be obtained from the single-column displacement controlled analysis, and considered as energy-based criteria in progressive collapse considerations. The structural performance following the columns removal scenarios can be evaluated by comparison of the columns' internal energy to the energy criteria. In this paper, a three-dimensional finite element analysis was conducted to investigate the buckling and post-buckling behavior of an individual W-section steel column by considering the effects of beams. Since the objective was to evaluate the role of beams on the derivation of the column buckling and failure energy criteria, various models were used in terms of column location and beam cross-section. Also, a 3-story steel structure's responses under sudden column removal were evaluated and verified using the proposed energy criteria.The results show that the simplified modeling of columns without considering the effects of beams can lead to conservative results in the derivation of the energy-based criteria.