Progressive Collapse of RC Frames Due to Heavy Impact Loads of Tsunami

Abstract

Progressive collapse is a relatively rare event, as it requires both an abnormal loading to initiate the local damage and a structure that lacks adequate continuity, ductility and redundancy to resist the spread of damage. However, significant casualties can result when collapse occurs. Heavy impact loads due to tsunami against building can be one of the scenarios of progressive collapse during tsunami disaster. Since progressive collapse includes material and geometry nonlinearity during collapse propagation, in the present research capability of 2 models for the material nonlinearity in simulating actual behavior of structures during collapse is compared with recent experimental results of a Reinforced Concrete (RC) frame. The results demonstrate that a material nonlinearity model, that is based on the idealized component load-deformation behavior, is not a proper representation for the real behavior of structures during progressive collapse and is so conservative.