Abstract

The objective of this study is the vulnerability phenomenon to progressive collapse of a 7-storey Reinforced Concrete (RC) building in conformance with ACI 318-11/IBC 2009. Progressive collapse is defined as a disastrous structural phenomenon due to human-made and natural hazards. The progressive collapse mechanism involves a single local failure which could lead to major deformations ending up with the total collapse of the structure. The building was designed as a Special Moment Resisting Frame (SMRF) and assumed to have an Occupancy Category II per UFC 3-301-01. Tie Forces (TF) and Enhanced Local Resistance (ELR) methods according to Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC 4-023-03) and Demand Capacity Ratio (DCR) method based on General Services Administration (GSA) were incorporated to investigate the probability of progressive collapse. According to GSA, the study illustrated that the building’s columns did not require additional reinforcement to prevent progressive collapse. Also, the study revealed that additional reinforcement was required for all the three column removal cases to meet the progressive collapse requirements based on GSA. Furthermore, it was concluded that two-way slabs required additional reinforcement to meet UFC requirements.

Keywords:

Alternate path method, progressive collapse, reinforced concrete structures, seismic designed, tie forces method,

References

1. ACI Committee 318, 2008. Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete (ACI 318-08), American Concrete Institute, ISBN: 9780870312649, pp: 473.
   
2. ASCE Members, 2006. Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures "ASCE 7-05". American Society of Civil Engineers, ASCE, Reston, VA.
   
3. FEMA, 1997. NEHARP,Guidelines for the Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings. Vol. 1, Retrieved from: books. google. com/.../ NEHRP_ guidelines_ for_ the_ seismic_ rehabil. html?id.
   
4. International Code Council, 2009. International Building Code "IBC". ICC, Washington, D.C.
   
5. The U.S. General Services Administration, 2003. Progressive Collapse Design Guidelines Applied to Concrete Moment-Resisting Frame Buildings. Washington, D.C.
   
6. Unified Facilities Criteria, 2010. Design of Buildings to Resist Progressive Collapse, "UFC 4-023-03". Department of Defense.
   Direct Link
7. Unified Facilities Criteria, 2012. Structural Engineering, "UFC 3-301-01." Department of Defense.
   Direct Link

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

Open Access Policy

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Copyright

The authors have no competing interests.