Sensitivity Analysis Related to Redundancy of Regular and Irregular Framed Structures after Member Disappearance

Recently, there have been some reported examples of structural collapse due to gravity, subsequent to damage from accident or an excitation that was not prepared for in the design process. A close view of new concepts, such as a redundancy and key elements, has been taken with the aim of ensuring the robustness of a structure, even in the event of an unexpected disturbance. The author previously proposed a sensitivity index of the vertical load carrying capacity to member disappearance for framed structures. The index is defined as the ratio of the load carrying capacity after a member or a set of an adjacent member disappears, to the original load carrying capacity. The member with the highest index may be regarded as a key element. The concept of bio-mimicry is being applied to various fields of engineering, and tree-shaped structures are sometimes used for the design of building structures. In this study a sensitivity analysis is applied to the irregular-framed structures such as tree-shaped structures.