Numerical Investigation on the Progressive Collapse Resistance of an RC Building with Brick Infills under Column Loss

Abstract — Interior brick-infill partitions are usually considered as non-structural components and only their weight is accounted for in practical structural design. In this study, their effect on the progressive collapse resistance of an RC building subjected to sudden column loss is investigated. Three notional column loss conditions with four different brick-infill locations are considered. Column-loss response analyses of the RC building with and without brick infills are carried out. Analysis results indicate that the collapse resistance is only slightly influenced by the brick infills due to their brittle failure characteristic. Even so, they may help to reduce the inelastic displacement response under column lo ss. For practical engineering, it is reasonably conservative to only consider the weight of brick-infill partitions in the structural analysis. Keywords — Progressive collapse, column loss, brick-infill partition, compression strut. I. I NTRODUCTION ROGRESSIVE collapse is referred to the phenomenon of widespread propagation of structural failure initiated by local damage. Many practitioners and academic researchers have been engaged in the prevention of progressive collapse since the partial collapse of the Ronan Point apartment building in 1968. Resistance of building structures to progressive collapse has become an important task for the development of structural design codes. It is learned from the history that unexpected abnormal loading is usually the ringleader for a progressive collapse event. Fortunately, the occurrence of a fatal accidental loading is extremely rare as compared to code-specified design loadings. Even so, reliable and simple approaches are undoubtedly required for evaluating the progressive collapse potential of important structures. Detailed step-by-step, linear static analysis procedures have been issued by the US General Service Administration (GSA) [1] and Department of Defense (DoD) [2]. The GSA linear static analysis approach has been applied to evaluate the progressive collapse potential of steel moment frames and RC frames [3-5]. Several analytical studies regarding the progressive collapse