A review on building progressive collapse, survey and discussion

Abstract Some recent buildings failure showed that structures built according to current design codes were not robust enough under the action of unexpected loads and failed progressively. Progressive collapse is the collapse which is not proportional to the original local damage. Building progressive collapse mitigation became an urgent demand in structural engineering environment. This study aims to provide the designer engineers with wider overview on this topic to minimize the consequences of buildings progressive collapse after the event of column removal scenario. Important researches contributions in building progressive collapse prevention were presented. In addition to that, reporting some important progressive collapse accident, to identify the source and the cause that lead to such collapses. International code writers and many government agencies tried to develop guidelines and recommendations to reduce or prevent the potential of such catastrophic collapses. These guidelines focused on event control, improved local resistance and providing alternate load paths to guarantee that the loss of any key supporting element will not lead to a bigger damage. Also, this paper discussed recent experimental and numerical studies on this issue. Special emphases was focused on reinforcement details as a main factor which governs reinforced concrete RC element behaviour. The collapse behaviour of the whole structures was analysed by different numerical methods (i.e. finite element method, discrete element method and applied element method). Some recommendation for steel, composite and RC structures to insure robust buildings performance after an unexpected event are presented for vulnerable elements i.e. joints in which their failure can lead to elements separation and larger collapses.