Experimental study on effects of multi-column removal affecting behaviour of RC frames to mitigate progressive collapse

Abstract

With plentiful of catastrophic incidents related to progressive collapse happening, notably the collapse of World Trade Center – Twin Tower of New York City in 2001, experts from both the engineering and academic field have increased their concerns on evaluating the capability of Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures to resist progressive collapse. Various studies were conducted in the last decade with majority focusing on instances whereby only a single load bearing member, such as a column, was removed. However, in most real life accidental situations (terrorist attack/ vehicular impact) involving progressive collapse, they will often result in heavy initial impact that will lead to multi-column loss in a RC structure. In this experiment, 2 similar specimens of multi-panel beam-slab-column system were tested with the only difference being the number of columns removed in each test. Based on the experimental data of the 2 specimens, a simplified method was used to account for the behaviour of RC structures when subjected to single or multiple columns removal.