PROGRESSIVE COLLAPSE

VIJAY GOKULAVASAN. S
2017233039
Progressive Collapse
A primary structural element fails,
resulting in the failure of adjoining
structural elements, which in turn
causes further structural failure by
result of abnormal loading event.
DEGREE OF PROGRESSIVITY

It is the measure progressive collapse.

The ratio of total collapsed area or

volume to the area or volume
damaged or destroyed directly by the
triggering event.
General classes of abnormal loads

Accidental Impact
Faulty Construction
Foundation Failure
Violent Change in Air Pressure
Accidental Impact

Several cases of progressive (disproportionate)

collapse have been caused by accidental
impact.
An example of this form of abnormal loading is
an automobile striking a key members in a
structure.
Faulty Construction
There have been several instances throughout history where poor construction
practices have led to progressive (disproportionate) collapse.

A notable example of this was the Skyline Plaza apartment building in Fairfax
County, Virginia.

This failure was attributed to the premature removal of supporting forms.

This led to localized failure, followed by a progressive (disproportionate) collapse of

the northwest corner of the structure.
Skyline Plaza , Fairfax County, Virginia.
Foundation Failure
Failure of a small portion of a structure's foundation can result in a loss of
primary support.

This failure could be the result of problems with erosion, geology, cratering
from an explosion, etc.

If the remainder of the structure is unable to redistribute this change in

load caused by the loss in support, extensive damage to the structure
could be much greater.
Violent Change in Air Pressure

An extreme change in air pressure can stem from many sources such as
explosions caused by gas, high explosives, etc.

An example of a progressive (disproportionate) collapse that resulted from a

severe change in air pressure was the 1995 terrorist bombing of the A.P. Murrah
Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
SOME EXAMPLES

Murrah Federal Office Building

World Trade Center 1 and 2

Rana plaza, Bangladesh

Murrah Federal Office Building

The Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City was

destroyed by a bomb on 19 April 1995.
The bomb, in a truck at the base of the building, destroyed or
badly damaged three columns.
Loss of support from these columns led to failure of a transfer
girder.
Failure of the transfer girder caused the collapse of columns
supported by the girder and floor areas support ed by those
columns
Contd.,

The Murrah Building disaster clearly was a progressive collapse by a ll the

definitions of that term.
Collapse of a large part of the building was precipitated by destruction of a small
part of it (a few columns).
The collapse also involved a clear sequence or progression of events:

COLUMN DESTRUCTION,
TRANSFER GIRDER FAILURE,
COLLAPSE OF STRUCTURE ABOVE.
A.P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma.
WORLD TRADE CENTER
Contd.,

The exterior frame of each WTC tower was already so highly redundant
that greater redundancy would be hard to contemplate. The interior
columns were not redundant, except for the limited redundancy created
by the hat trusses.

But the impact and fire damage were so pervasive that greater
redundancy in the interior is not likely to have changed the outcome.

Greater local resistance (in the strictly structural sense, fire protection
may be a different issue) was not a practical proposition for these
towers.
 Rana plaza, Bangladesh.

Structure was build on stratum which originally had a pond in the past.
Structure had heavy equipment on the top floor which were used for
garments factory.
This equipment acted like a mild tamping rammer by inducing
oscillating forces to the building's frame.
Final failure occurred after preliminary cracks began to appear in the
structure.
This suggests that some of the key structural elements have failed
which lead to progressive collapse.
Cond.,
METHODS TO PREVENT DISPROPORIATE
COLLAPSE

Redundancy or Alternate load paths

Local Resistance
Interconnection or Continuity
Redundancy or Alternate load paths

Structure is designed such that one component fails,

alternate paths are available for loads to transfer.
Design for a redundancy requires that a building
structure tolerate loss of any one column without
collapse
Analysis should be done for this approach to check the
stability of the structure
Local Resistance

In this method the collapse is reduced by

providing critical components that might be
subjected to attack with additional resistance
to suck attacks
It is difficult to codify in simple and objective
way
Interconnection or Continuity

It is not a separate approach from redundancy or local

resistance but a combination of both
Studies show that the failure could have been avoided
or at least reduced in scale if structural components had
been interconnected more effectively