Resistance to progressive collapse

Abstract

Structural collapses of large structures have increased the interest of studying progressive collapse of structures in recent years. Advances has been made but there are still no universally applied methods to design against progressive collapse. This study aims to examine if buildings regulations in Norway are sufficiently protecting structures against progressive collapse caused by local damage. This was done in a numerical simulation in Abaqus where three accidental scenarios were applied to three structures to study the response of the structures. The results show that the structures are able to use alternative load paths to redistribute loads from the damaged structure. Confirming safety of Norwegian standards by proving that alternative load paths are likely to be established in structures when they are subject to local damage.