Dynamic performance of a real-scale reinforced concrete building test under a corner-column failure scenario

A Parametric Computational Study of RC Building Structures under Corner-Column Removal Situations

“…A full-scale RC building structure, purpose built for the experiment and previously analysed by Adam et al [28] and Buitrago et al [27], was used for the computational analysis and parametric study described here. The building consisted of two floors and 2 × 2 bays with 0.30 × 0.30 m 2 columns and flat-slabs that were 0.20 m thick.…”

“…The design of the building followed the requirements of Eurocodes [38][39][40]. A more detailed description of the reinforcement bars of the concrete elements can be found in Adam et al [28]. Table 1 gives the concrete mechanical properties of slabs and columns obtained on the day of the test, which have been used in the FE model validation.…”

“…These approaches can demonstrate (or not) that the structure has a minimum level of robustness and highlight potential areas for improvement, extracting conclusions to increase the resilience of a structure against accidental actions. Research studies to date have concentrated on both computational simulations (e.g., [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]) and experimental analysis (e.g., [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]), together with studies of real events of progressive collapse [29][30][31][32].…”

“…Few experimental studies are available on reinforced concrete (RC) building structures, particularly on purpose built full-scale structures subjected to sudden removal of columns [28,33]. Most of the cases studied with sudden column removal have been on subassemblies, including cases involving internal and edge columns (e.g., Qian et al [34]) and, to a lesser extent, on corner columns (e.g., [35]), although the columns in the latter case are more vulnerable to accidental events [28]. Due to the small number of tests on full-scale buildings, only a few of the computational models found in the literature have been fully validated.…”

“…The aim of this paper was thus to make a thorough parametric study based on a validated Finite Element (FE) analysis and high performance models of a purpose-built full-scale RC building structure under a corner-column removal situation experimentally tested in a previous work carried out by the authors [28]. This is part of the research significance and novelty of the paper, together with its focus on design accidental situations according to the actual load combinations established in the codes [36][37][38] so as to set: (i) Alternative Load Paths (ALPs) activated after the sudden loss of a corner-column, (ii) Dynamic Amplification Factors (DAFs) or Load Increase Factors (LIFs) and (iii) key aspects of building design and recommendations for achieving safe structures.…”