Progressive collapse of multi-story steel frames

Abstract

There are two cases of behavior of multistory frames after the vertical collapse of one story which occurs due to an event such as an explosion or an earthquake. One is where the collapse proceeds to a certain extent and then ceases and the other is where She collapse continuously progresses until all stories have completely collapsed. The collapse in the latter case is called progressive collapse which is an unstable phenomenon resulting from the gravity load of frames. This study clarified the frame conditions which enable stories to resist progressive collapse through comparing the gravity potential energy released by the story collapse with the energy which columns absorb before they completely collapse due to the compressive load,.