Infilled masonry walls contribution in mitigating progressive collapse of multistory reinforced concrete structures according to UFC guidelines

Abstract

A structure is subjected to progressive collapse when an element fails, resulting in failure of adjoining structural elements which, in their turn, cause further structural failure leading eventually to partial or total collapse. The failure of a primary vertical support might occur due to extreme loadings such as bomb explosion in a terrorist attack, gas explosion and huge impact of a car in the parking area. Different guidelines such as the General Services Administration (GSA 2003) and the Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC 2009) addressed the structural progressive collapse due to the sudden loss of a main vertical support. In the current study, a progressive collapse assessment according to the UFC guidelines is carried out for a typical ten-story reinforced concrete framed structure designed according to codes [(ACI 318-08) and (ASCE 7-10)] for minimum design loads for buildings and other structures. Fully nonlinear dynamic analysis for the structure was carried out using Applied Element Method (AEM). The investigated cases included the removal of a corner column, an edge column, an edge shear wall, internal columns and internal shear wall. The numerical analysis showed that simplification of the problem into 3D bare frames would lead to uneconomical design. It was found for the studied case that, the infilled masonry walls have a valuable contribution in mitigating progressive collapse of the reinforced concrete framed structures. Neglecting these walls would lead to uneconomical design.

Establishing a predictive method for blast induced masonry debris distribution using experimental and numerical methods

“…For this project, the Applied Element Method (AEM) [29] was selected, due to its ability to reliably model progressive collapse and the large displacements associated with debris distribution [30,31]. AEM is a discretised model in which the internal forces are modelled by shear and normal springs which connect neighbouring elements along the faces.…”

Research and practice on progressive collapse and robustness of building structures in the 21st century

“…21b). Some of the latest and most important works on simulating complete building structures by this technique are those by: Sasani et al [220], Galal and El-Sawy [26], Salem et al [262], Helmy et al [80,263,264], Khalil [265], Hefez et al [266], Dinu et al [267], Kim and Wee [268], Ehab et al [269], and Attia et al [270]. In all these studies the simulations were able to follow the structures until collapse after a sudden column removal.…”

Effect of non-structural masonry brick infill walls on the robustness of a RC framed building severely damaged due to a landslide

“…In addition to the resistance to horizontal actions, namely to the seismic action, masonry infill walls have also demonstrated a positive influence on the behaviour of RC buildings severely damaged locally, such as in the case of the failure of a column or a set of columns [21]- [25]. However, research addressing this issue is scarce and mostly numerical.…”

“…guidelines [26] of the Department of Defense of USA was carried out for a typical 10-story RC framed structure by Helmy et al [25]. Fully nonlinear dynamic analysis of the structure was carried out using the Applied Element Method following different damage scenarios such as the removal of a corner column, an edge column, an edge shear wall, internal columns and internal shear walls.…”