Flat plate systems are constructed with slabs directly supported on columns. Since there are no beams in the system, the behavior of connections between the slabs and columns play a crucial role. Due to the sudden and brittle nature of punching shear failures, slab-column connection design must be conducted with proper safety precautions. The first part of this study aims to evaluate the safety level of different design expressions in the codes. Fir this purpose, the ability of ACI 318-11, TS-500 and Eurocode-2 to estimate punching shear strength was examined in light of experimental results compiled from previous research. Interior and exterior connections were examined in the course of the study. In the second part of the study, beam and shell models were calibrated to simulate the load-deformation response of interior slab-column connections in light of experimental results. In the final part of this thesis, a typical floor plan of a flat plate system was analyzed to investigate the possibility of a progressivefailure mechanism after punching failure takes place at a slab-column connection. Minimum post-punching capacity required to avoid progressive punching failure in a floor was estimated. It is believed that, the results of this study can be helpful in guiding engineers in understanding the safety inherent in punching shear design expressions and to take necessary precautions against progressive collapse.

Concern about effect of explosives effect on engineering structures evolved after the damage of Second World War. Beginning from 90&rsquo / s with the event of bombing Alfred P. Murrah Federal building located in Oklahoma City this concern deepened and with the attack to World Trade Center twin towers on September 11, 2001 it is peaked. Recent design codes mainly focus on earthquake resistant design and strengthening of the structures. These code design methodologies may sometimes satisfy current blast resistant design philosophy, but in general code compliant designs may not provide recognizable resistance to blast effect. Therefore designer should carry out earthquake resistant design with the blast resistant design knowledge in mind in order to be able to select the most suitable framing scheme that provide both earthquake and blast resistance. This is only possible if designer deeply understands and interprets the blast phenomenon. In this study, it is intended to introduce blast phenomenon, basic terminology, past studies, blast loading on structures, blast structure interaction, analysis methodologies for blast effect and analysis for blast induced progressive and disproportionate collapse. Final focus is made on a case study that is carried out to determine whether a regular steel structures already designed according to Turkish Earthquake Code 2007 requirements satisfy blast, thus progressive collapse resistance requirements or not.

Το ζήτημα της σταδιακής κατάρρευσης ήρθε στο προσκήνιο με την κατάρρευση του κτηρίου Ronan Point Apartment Building στο Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο, το 1968. Με αφορμή το γεγονός αυτό, σχεδόν το σύνολο των κανονισμών οπλισμένου σκυροδέματος ανά τον κόσμο απέκτησε διατάξεις σχετικά με την προστασία κατασκευών από σταδιακή κατάρρευση. Στα πλαίσια αυτού, εξετάζονται δύο διατάξεις πλακολωρίδας δύο ανοιγμάτων υπό το σενάριο της κατάρρευσης της ακραίας στήριξης. Η πρώτη διάταξη είναι οπλισμένη κατά τα συνήθη πρότυπα, ενώ η δεύτερη περιλαμβάνει επιπλέον οπλισμό στο άνω πέλμα των ανοιγμάτων. Οι αναλύσεις διεξάγονται σε περιβάλλον πεπερασμένων στοιχείων ANSYS και συγκρίνονται με αντίστοιχα πειραματικά αποτελέσματα. Συμπεραίνεται ότι οι συνήθεις πλάκες δεν έχουν την δυνατότητα ανάπτυξης μεγάλων μετατοπίσεων και ότι η προσθήκη οπλισμού στο άνω πέλμα των ανοιγμάτων των πλακών προσδίδει σε αυτές την απαραίτητη πλαστιμότητα, ώστε να μπορούν να αναπτύξουν μεγάλεις μετακινήσεις και να αναπτύσσονται δυνάμεις ελκυστήρα. / The issue of progressive collapse came to the foreground with the collapse of the Ronan Point Building in the UK, in 1968. In response to this event, most reinforced concrete codes around the work integrated regulations in regard to protection of buildings against progressive collapse. Two two-span slab assemblies are analysed for the collapse of the outer support. The first assembly is reinforce according to the common practice, while the second has added reinforced to the top end of the spans. The analyses are performed with ANSYS and compared with experimental results. It is concluded that commonly reinforced slabs do not have the ability to withstand large deflections. Additional top end reinforcement gives slabs the necessary plasticity in order for large deflections to be developed and tension (tie) forces to build up in the section.

O evento do colapso progressivo começou a ser estudado, principalmente, após o acidente do edifício Ronan Point, em 1968, na cidade de Londres. Esse acidente fez o meio técnico rever as considerações normativas, sobretudo de maneira a adicionar recomendações que visem minimizar os danos causados à estrutura quando sujeita a um dano acidental.Entretanto, tais recomendações não realizam a análise do risco da estrutura colapsar. Essas também não conseguem analisar medidas de robustez e vulnerabilidade, e nem determinar qual é o elemento chave para a estrutura. Desse modo, partindo desses questionamentos, o presente trabalho desenvolveu uma nova metodologia nomeada aqui de Risk Analysis of the Progressive Collapse (RAPC). Este procedimento fornece uma medida mais precisa dos riscos, através de uma abordagem que utiliza a Teoria da Confiabilidade Estrutural. Assim, é deduzida uma expressão para a determinação da probabilidade de colapso progressivo, bem como são definidos os coeficientes de importância e vulnerabilidade para identificar o(s) elemento(s) chave. O elemento chave é definido como o que apresenta a maior interseção entre vulnerabilidade e importância para o colapso estrutural. Essas formulações desenvolvidas na metodologia do RAPC são implementadas em Fortran. Para isso, a modelagem do edifício de alvenaria estrutural é feita utilizando o software DIANA®, no qual os esforços solicitantes são obtidos e utilizados como dados de entrada na análise de confiabilidade. Valores de probabilidades de falha individual por elemento, condicional e condicional dupla são calculados pelo First Order Reliability Method (FORM) e Importance Sampling Monte Carlo (ISMC) com auxílio do programa StRAnD. Um algoritmo em Fortran é implementado para acoplamento do DIANA® e StRAnD, além de mapear a probabilidade de falha dos elementos estruturais. Portanto, torna-se evidente que a identificação dos elementos mais vulneráveis, e do elemento chave em particular, é útil para abordagens diretas de concepção estrutural, tais como a melhoria da resistência local. Contudo, os coeficientes propostos também medem os efeitos dos procedimentos de projeto que conduzem à continuidade, ductilidade e redundância. Quando essas medidas trabalham para reduzir as probabilidades de propagação de dano ou colapso, isso se reflete nas vulnerabilidades de elementos eventualmente iniciando esses caminhos de falha. Sendo assim, conclui-se que a formulação do RAPC se mostra como uma ferramenta na determinação do risco do colapso progressivo nas estruturas. / The progressive collapse event began to be studied, mainly, after the accident of the Ronan Point building, at 1968, in the city of London. This accident caused the engineers review their normative considerations, mainly in order to add recommendations aimed at minimizing the damage to structure when subjected to abnormal loading. However, such recommendations do not perform the risk analysis of the structure to collapse. These also fail to analyze measures of robustness and vulnerability, and either determine which is the key element of the structure. Thus, leaving of these questions, the present work to develop a new methodology named here of Risk Analysis of the Progressive Collapse (RAPC). This procedure provides a more accurate measure of risks through an approach that uses Structural Reliability Theory. Thus, an expression is deduced for the determination of the probability of progressive collapse, as well as the importance and vulnerability coefficients are defined to identify the key element (or key elements). The key element is identified as the one presenting the largest intersection between vulnerability and importance to collapse.These formulations developed in the RAPC methodology are implemented in Fortran.For this, the structural masonry building modeling is done using the DIANA® software, in which the requesting efforts are obtained and used as input data in the reliability analysis. Probabilities values individual, conditional, and double conditional are calculated by the First Order Reliability Method (FORM) and Importance Sampling Monte Carlo (ISMC) using the StRAnD software. A Fortran algorithm is implemented for DIANA® and StRAnD coupling, besides mapping the probability of failure of the structural elements. Therefore, it is clear that identification of the most vulnerable elements, and of the key element in particular, is useful for direct design approaches to structural design, such as local resistance enhancements. However, the coefficients proposed herein also measure the effects of design procedures leading to continuity, ductility or redundancy. When these measures work to reduce probabilities of damage propagation or collapse, this is reflected in the vulnerabilities of elements eventually initiating these failure paths. Therefore, it is concluded that the formulation of RAPC is shown as an tool in determining the risk of progressive collapse in structures.

Following some incidents in high-rise buildings, such as Ronan Point London 1968, in which collapse of a limited number of structural elements progressed to a failure disproportionate to the initial cause, consideration of robustness was introduced in British Standard. The main method of preventing progressive collapse for providing robustness to steel framed buildings with precast concrete floor slabs focuses on the allowable tying forces that the reinforcement in between the slabs and in hollowcores should carry. However there are uncertainties about the basis of the practical rules associated with this method. This thesis presents the results of numerical and analytical studies of tie connection behaviour between precast concrete floor slabs (PCFS). It is shown that under current design regulations the tie connection is not able to resist the accidental load limit applied on the damaged floor slabs. By establishing the capability of a finite element model to depict and predict the behaviour of concrete members in situations such as arching and catenary action against several experimental tests, an extensive set of parametric studies was conducted in order to identify the effective parameters in enhancing the resistance of the tie connection between PCFSs. These parameters include: tie bar diameter, position, length, yield stress and ultimate strain; the slab’s height, length; and the compressive strength of the grouting concrete in between the slabs that encases the tie bar. Recommendations are made based on the findings of this parametric study in order to increase the resistance of the tie connection. Based on the identified effective parameters in the parametric study a predictive analytical relationship is derived which is capable of determining the maximum vertical displacement and load that the tie connection is able to undergo. This relationship can be used to enable the connection to capture the accidental limit load on a damaged slab. The identified parameters are examined in a three dimensional finite element model to assess their effect when columns of the structure are lost in different locations such as an edge, corner or internal column. Based on the findings of this study methods for improving the connections performance are presented. Also the effect of alternative transverse tying method is evaluated and it is concluded that although this kind of tie increases the load carrying capacity of the connection, its effect on the catenary action is not significant.

No description available.

No description available.

Precast concrete multistory buildings are used in an attempt to optimize the available construction space and reduce costs. However, little is known about predicting their capacity in a brittle response mode due to the sudden loss of a critical element that could induce a Progressive Collapse Scenario. Therefore, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) developed an explicit approach in the design of precast concrete systems that is intended to mitigate a progressive collapse by enhancing the rotational capacity of joints and the robustness of the structural system. A full-scale experiment was conducted to investigate the structural performance of a prototype design under a column-removal scenario. The test assembly frame, consisting of three columns and two beams, was subjected to a displacement controlled vertical force acting at the center to characterize the failure modes and collapse mechanisms. Brittleailures of critical structural elements were observed and significantly impacted the performance.

In the modern building industry wood as a building material has been looked on as one of the solutions to lower the environmentally impact of the building industry. Building types that normally have been reserved for concrete and steel are today being built with wood as main load bearing component. However, the structural robustness of high-rise wood building has been questioned. The concern relates to wood’s brittle failure-mode and therefore the capacity of wood buildings to withstand catastrophic events where a loadbearing structural part its removed from the construction. To counteract a brittle failure mode in wood and create a ductile failure mode that allows alternative load paths, ductile steel connectors are seen as a solution. With inspiration from the concrete and steel industry, catenary action is brought forward as the most efficient method to create an alternative load path in high-rise wood buildings. To create catenary action, a tube connector that allows excessive deformation with increasing strength was believed to have sufficient capacity. A test method for testing tube connector capacity in a catenary event was developed with a main focus on tube capacity and forces created on the surrounding structure in a catastrophic event. To achieve this, a long stroke reversed 4-point bending test was formed and testing of traditional fasteners and the tube connector was conducted. Test result from catenary capacity testing showed low to no capacity for traditional fastening methods, however, traditional fastening method created arcing action in the beginning of the test cycles. The traditional fasteners showed a consistency in failure mode with arching and wood crushing before connection failure in form of screw withdrawal. Tube connectors had low to no consistency in failure modes, but higher consistency in capacity. Failure mode regarding tubes consisted of steel failure in tube and wood failure in the test specimen. In general, the tubes connector showed promising capacity and ductility to create alternative load paths with the help of catenary action. The project has shown that some design development for the tube connector and lager scale testing are needed to completely understand tube connector capacity and failure mode.

No description available.