Progressive Collapse and Robustness of Steel Framed Structures

In this paper the robustness and resistance to progressive collapse of steel framed structures under exceptional actions has been investigated. After some calculation methods proposed by the authors have been presented, a new general robustness assessment technique has been proposed and applied to some case studies, represented by steel structures designed with both the old and the new seismic Italian codes. The robustness of studied structures has been assessed under different column-removal conditions by means of a non linear static analysis approach based on the alternative load path method. The achieved results have allowed a comparison among the examined structures to be made, considering both the location the column removed and the influence of different connection types.