Assessment of Different Retrofitting Methods on Structural Performance of RC Buildings against Progressive Collapse

Abstract

Progressive collapse refers to the spread of primary local damages within the structure. Following such damages due to removing one or more load-bearing columns, the failure spreads in a chain and causes structural failure. This study represents a report investigating the influence of various retrofitting methods on the progressive collapse resistance of multistorey reinforced concrete (RC) structures. To this end, eight different cases were considered. The first one included a thirteen-story RC moment-resisting frame (bare frame), while the others were frames upgraded with the application of X-brace, diagonal brace, inverted V-brace, the viscous damper in the central bay, viscous damper in two inner bays, viscous damper only in certain stories and carbon fiber reinforced polymer. Moreover, three different column removal scenarios were considered as a column failure at stories one, six, and thirteen of each case study structure. The analysis results indicated that the redistribution of loads after the column’s failure and the RC buildings’ collapse resistance was increased depending mainly on the type of approach used for upgrading the bare frame.