• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.649-665
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• 2020

One of the most important issues in structural systems is evaluation of the margin of safety in low and mid-rise buildings against the progressive collapse mechanism due to the earthquake loads. In this paper, modeling of collapse propagation in structural elements of RC frame buildings is evaluated by tracing down the collapse points in beam and column structural elements, one after another, under earthquake loads and the influence of column removal is investigated on how the collapse expansion in beam and column structural members. For this reason, progressive collapse phenomenon is studied in 3-story and 5-story intermediate moment resisting frame buildings due to the corner and edge column removal in presence of the earthquake loads. In this way, distribution and propagation of the collapse in progressive collapse mechanism is studied, from the first element of the structure to the collapse of a large part of the building with investigating and comparing the results of nonlinear time history analyses (NLTHA) in presence of two-component accelograms proposed by FEMA_P695. Evaluation of the results, including the statistical survey of the number and sequence of the collapsed points in process of the collapse distribution in structural system, show that the progressive collapse distribution are special and similar in low-rise and mid-rise RC buildings due to the simultaneous effects of the column removal and the earthquake loads and various patterns of the progressive collapse distribution are proposed and presented to predict the collapse propagation in structural elements of similar buildings. So, the results of collapse distribution patterns and comparing the values of collapse can be utilized to provide practical methods in codes and guidelines to enhance the structural resistance against the progressive collapse mechanism and eventually, the value of damage can be controlled and minimized in similar buildings.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.691-707
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• 2020

One of the most important issues in structural systems is evaluation of the margin of safety in low and mid-rise buildings against the progressive collapse mechanism due to the earthquake loads. In this paper, modeling of collapse propagation in structural elements of RC frame buildings is evaluated by tracing down the collapse points in beam and column structural elements, one after another, under earthquake loads and the influence of column removal is investigated on how the collapse expansion in beam and column structural members. For this reason, progressive collapse phenomenon is studied in 3-story and 5-story intermediate moment resisting frame buildings due to the corner and edge column removal in presence of the earthquake loads. In this way, distribution and propagation of the collapse in progressive collapse mechanism is studied, from the first element of the structure to the collapse of a large part of the building with investigating and comparing the results of nonlinear time history analyses (NLTHA) in presence of two-component accelograms proposed by FEMA_P695. Evaluation of the results, including the statistical survey of the number and sequence of the collapsed points in process of the collapse distribution in structural system, show that the progressive collapse distribution are special and similar in low-rise and mid-rise RC buildings due to the simultaneous effects of the column removal and the earthquake loads and various patterns of the progressive collapse distribution are proposed and presented to predict the collapse propagation in structural elements of similar buildings. So, the results of collapse distribution patterns and comparing the values of collapse can be utilized to provide practical methods in codes and guidelines to enhance the structural resistance against the progressive collapse mechanism and eventually, the value of damage can be controlled and minimized in similar buildings.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.187-192
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• 2016

While structures are designed within elastic range by other designs, plastic behavior of structures should be verified and controlled in order to prevent structural collapse by the earthquake resistant design. No Collapse Requirement for typical bridges is to avoid falling down of superstructure by way of plastic behavior of certain structural elements and to operate emergency vehicles after earthquake. Such plastic behavior is restricted to connections or pier columns and appropriate measures are required for each case. Earthquake Resistant Design part of Roadway Bridge Design Code provides design processes for Ductile Collapse Mechanism by forming plastic hinges at pier columns. Also for bridges with reinforced concrete piers ductility-based design processes are provided as an appendix constructing Brittle Collapse Mechanism with connection yielding. In this study, a typical bridge with steel bearing connections and reinforced concrete piers is selected and No Collapse Design procedure considering both Ductile and Brittle Collapse Mechanism is proposed together with revisions required for the Earthquake Resistant Design part.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.771-776
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• 2007

Widespread propagation of failure can be triggered by localized damage to a structure because of fires, impact and explosion etc. In this paper, the progressive collapse analysis program is developed to automatically check the failed members and construct the modified structural model at each step. OpenSees, that is widely used in many research groups, was used for the developed progressive collapse analysis control program. The control program developed in this study automatically computes the damage indices of all the structural members and performance a progressive collapse analysis after the first failed member is selected. Using the developed program, we compared the progressive collapse behaviors of the example structures considering dynamic effects or not, and the difference of progressive collapse mechanism according to the modeling method of the failed members.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.375-387
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• 2018

This paper presents a review on progressive collapse mechanism of steel framed buildings exposed to fire. The influence of load ratios, strength of structural members (beam, column, slab, connection), fire scenarios, bracing systems, fire protections on the collapse mode and collapse time of structures is comprehensively reviewed. It is found that the key influencing factors include load ratio, fire scenario, bracing layout and fire protection. The application of strong beams, high load ratios, multi-compartment fires will lead to global downward collapse which is undesirable. The catenary action in beams and tensile membrane action in slabs contribute to the enhancement of structural collapse resistance, leading to a ductile collapse mechanism. It is recommended to increase the reinforcement ratio in the sagging and hogging region of slabs to not only enhance the tensile membrane action in the slab, but to prevent the failure of beam-to-column connections. It is also found that a frame may collapse in the cooling phase of compartment fires or under travelling fires. This is because that the steel members may experience maximum temperatures and maximum displacements under these two fire scenarios. An edge bay fire is more prone to induce the collapse of structures than a central bay fire. The progressive collapse of buildings can be effectively prevented by using bracing systems and fire protections. A combination of horizontal and vertical bracing systems as well as increasing the strength and stiffness of bracing members is recommended to enhance the collapse resistance. A protected frame dose not collapse immediately after the local failure but experiences a relatively long withstanding period of at least 60 mins. It is suggested to use three-dimensional models for accurate predictions of whether, when and how a structure collapses under various fire scenarios.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.31-46
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• 1993

The motivations of the application of shakedown analysis to the earthquake-resistant design of ductile moment-resisting steel structures are presented. The problems which must be solved with this application are also addressed. The illustrative results from a series of static and time history nonlinear analyses of one-bay three-story steel frame and the related discussions have shown that the incremental collapse may be the critical design criterion in case of earthquake loading. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the inelastic excursion mechanism for alternation load pattern, such as in earthquake, should be the sidesway mechanism of the whole structure for the efficient mobilization of the structural energy dissipating capacity and that the shakedown analysis technique can be used as a tool to ensure this mechanism.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.253-260
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• 2016

In this paper, the optimal seismic design method for inducing the beam-hinge collapse mechanism of steel moment frames is presented. This uses the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II(NSGA-II) as an optimal algorithm. The constraint condition for preventing the occurrence of plastic hinges at columns is used to induce the beam-hinge collapse mechanism. This method uses two objective functions to minimize the structural weight and maximize the dissipated energy. The proposed method is verified by the application to nine story steel moment frame example. The minimum column-to-beam strength ratio to induce the beam-hinge collapse mechanism are investigated based on the simulation results. To identify the influence of panel zone on the minimum column-to-beam strength ratio, three analytic modeling methods(nonlinear centerline model without rigid end offsets, nonlinear centerline model with rigid end offsets, nonlinear model with panel zones) are used.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.473-494
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• 2014

Progressive collapse, which is referred to as the collapse of the entire building under local damages, is a common failure mode happened by earthquakes. The collapse process highly depends on the whole structural system. Since, asymmetry of the building plan leads to the local damage concentration; it may intensify the progressive collapse mechanism of asymmetric buildings. In this research the progressive collapse of regular and irregular 6-story RC ordinary moment resisting frame buildings are studied in the presence of the earthquake loads. Collapse process and collapse propagation are investigated using nonlinear time history analyses (NLTHA) in buildings with 5%, 15% and 25% mass asymmetry with respect to the number of collapsed hinges and story drifts criteria. Results show that increasing the value of mass eccentricity makes the asymmetric buildings become unstable earlier and in the early stages with lower number of the collapsed hinges. So, with increasing the mass eccentricity in building, instability and collapse of the entire building occurs earlier, with lower potential of the progressive collapse. It is also demonstrated that with increasing the mass asymmetry the decreasing trend of the number of collapsed beam and column hinges is approximately similar to the decreasing trend in the average story drifts of the mass centers and stiff edges. So, as an alternative to a much difficult-to-calculate local response parameter of the number of collapsed hinges, the story drift, as a global response parameter, measures the potential of progressive collapse more easily.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2019

The aim of the paper is the prediction of the seismic collapse mode of steel storage pallet racks under seismic loads. The attention paid by the researchers on the behaviour of the industrial steel storage pallets racks is increased over the years thanks to their high dead-to-live load ratio. In fact, these structures, generally made by cold-formed thin-walled profiles, present very low structural costs but can support large and expensive loads. The paper presents a prediction of the seismic collapse modes of multi-storey racks. The analysis of the possible collapse modes has been made by an approach based on the kinematic theorem of plastic collapse extended to the second order effects by means of the concept of collapse mechanism equilibrium curve. In this way, the dissipative behaviour of racks is determined with a simpler method than the pushover analysis. Parametric analyses have been performed on 24 racks, differing for the geometric layout and cross-section of the components, designed in according to the EN16618 and EN15512 requirements. The obtained results have highlighted that, in all the considered cases, the global collapse mechanism, that is the safest one, never develops, leading to a dangerous situation that must be avoided to preserve the structure during a seismic event. Although the studied racks follow all the codes prescriptions, the development of a dissipative collapse mechanism is not achieved. In addition, also the variability of load distribution has been considered, reflecting the different pallet positions assumed during the in-service life of the racks, to point out its influence on the collapse mechanism. The information carried out from the paper can be very useful for designers and manufacturers because it allows to better understand the racks behaviour in seismic load condition.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.1085-1098
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• 2014

Plastic mechanism analysis of structures subjected to large deformation has long been used in order to determine collapse mechanisms of steel structures, and the energy absorbed in plastic deformation during such collapses. In this paper the technique is applied to vehicle roof structures that undergo large plastic deformation as a result of rollover crashes. The components of such roof structures are typically steel spot-welded hat-type sections. Ten different deformation mechanisms are defined from investigations of real-world rollover crashes, and an analytical technique to determine the plastic collapse load and energy absorption of such mechanisms is determined. The procedure is presented in a generic manner, such that it may be applied to any vehicle structure undergoing a rollover induced collapse. The procedure is applied to an exemplar vehicle, in order to demonstrate its application in determining the energy absorbed in the deformation of the identified collapse mechanisms. The procedure will be useful to forensic crash reconstructionists, in order to accurately determine the initial travel velocity of a vehicle that has undergone a rollover and for which the post-crash vehicle deformation is known. It may also be used to perform analytical studies of the collapse resistance of vehicle roof structures for optimisation purposes, which is also demonstrated with an analysis of the effect of varying the geometric and material properties of the roof structure components of the exemplar vehicle.