NUMERICAL MODELLING OF THE PROGRESSIVE COLLAPSE OF FRAMED STRUCTURES AS A RESULT OF IMPACT OR EXPLOSION

A definition of progressive collapse is offered and two examples of the phenomenon described. Attention is drawn to potential sources of abnormal loads that should be examined when designing for progressive collapse performance. A plane frame computer program is described for the collapse analysis of reinforced concrete frames using finite elements and a quasi-static approach. The paper concludes by discussing the on-going development of a 3-dimensional dynamic/quasi-static non-linear finite element computer program for more accurate analysis.