Throughout recent history, famous records of building failures may be found, unfortunately accompanied by great human loss and major economic consequences. One of the mechanisms of failure is referred to as ‘progressive collapse’: one or several structural members suddenly fail, whatever the cause (accident or attack). The building then collapses progressively, every load redistribution causing the failure of other structural elements, until the complete failure of the building or of a major part of it. The civil engineering community’s attention to this type of event was first drawn by the progressive collapse of the building called Ronan Point, following a gas explosion in one of the last floors. Different simplified procedures for simulating the effects of progressive collapse can now be found in the literature, some of them described in detail. However, no extensive study can be found, in which these procedures are compared to more complete approaches for progressive collapse simulation, aiming at the comparison of the assumptions underlying them. To further contribute to the elaboration of design codes for progressive collapse, such a study would therefore be of great interest for practitioners.<p>All parties involved with the subject of progressive collapse are currently attempting to bridge the gap between the work done on the research front on the one hand, what can be considered as a fitting numerical model for regular industrial use on the other, and finally, the normalisation committees. The present research work aims at providing insight as to how the gaps between these poles may be reduced. The approach consists in studying the various hypotheses one by one, and gradually adding complexities to the numerical model, if they prove to be warranted by the need for sufficient accuracy. One of the contributions of the present work stems from this approach, in that it provides insight regarding the validity of the various simplifying assumptions. It also leads to the development of procedures which are kept as simple as possible, in an attempt to design them as best as possible for regular industrial use.<p>The objective of simplifying assumptions validation is pursued in Chapter 2. This chapter consists of the text of a paper entitled “Comparison and study of different progressive collapse simulation techniques for RC structures”, in which the main simplifying assumptions of the progressive collapse guidelines are detailed and assessed. The DoD [1] and GSA [2] static linear and non-linear procedures are investigated, and compared to more complete approaches in order to assess their validity.<p>In the next two chapters, two new procedures for design against progressive collapse are developed. They are based on quasi-static computations, their main objective being to account accurately for dynamic inertial effects. The first of these chapters consists in the text of a paper entitled “A new pushover analysis procedure for structural progressive collapse based on a kinetic energy criterion”, in which energetic considerations allow for the development of a static equivalent pushover procedure. The second chapter consists of the text of a paper entitled “A new pushover analysis procedure for structural progressive collapse based on optimised load amplification factors”, which uses load amplification factors resulting from optimisation procedures in order to account for dynamic inertial effects. The contributions of these two papers lie in the fact that they offer an improved accuracy on the results, when compared with other procedure available in the literature, which follow the same general principles. The two proposed procedures are thoroughly validated by systematic comparisons with results obtained with the more costly dynamic non-linear computations.<p>Finally, an additional chapter focuses on the various approaches that can be adopted for the simulation of reinforced concrete beams and columns. Because a rather simple model for reinforced concrete is used in Chapter 2, the bulk of this chapter consists in the implementation of a more complex fibre-based non-linear beam element. Comparisons performed with this model provide insight to the limitations of the simpler model, which is based on the use of lumped plastic hinges, but show this simpler model to be valid for the purposes of the present work.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Mankind strives for accomplishing the mutually agreed goals in Agenda 2030 where the thirteenth goal is to stop climate change. The amount of sand used in several materials is of great importance to the environment. Sand is a crucial component when producing flat glass, and one way of decreasing the construction sectors impact on the climate change is recycling of old flat glass. The study investigates the potential for an easier reuse of flat glass. The purpose of the thesis is to increase the reuse of flat glass and thereby reduce the climate impact from the construction sector. The aim is to bring forth a crosslist for reuse of flat glass, to find out if the bending strength in an old glass can achieve the requirements of today's standards and to make an overall calculation of the costs andthe enviromental savings when reusing flatglass. Several methods were used to achieve the aim, namely a literature study to gather information, dialogues that give a range of how different aspects can be valued and abending strength test that show the reused flatglass´s ability to withstand external pressure. The overall costs and the enviromental impact were also calculated. The result shows that the crosslist encounters for the properties being fulfilled in a reused window, given that the performer has a certain knowledge. The bending strength test showed that the roughly 60 year old flat glass did achieve the requirements and can therefore be used as a product in a new building. The dialouges enlighted the greatest obstacles for reusing flat glass as lack of knowledge and supply. More specific problems while using old flat glass is the matters of energy and guarantee which are essential when deciding if reuse is possible and is problematic for whoever tries to upgrade a window that is not reaching its specified requirements. The requirements if a window is to be reused or not in a specific way is a part of thecrosslist where the properties are categorized from 1 to 3 where 3 has the lowest performance but still achieves the minimum requirements. The possibly changed strength of the tested flat glass in terms of age is difficult to assess as there is no new reference object with a similar thickness to compare with. The overall calculations of costs and environmental impact shows that large savings can be made . The study show the possibilities of how a flat glass can be made by reusin flat glass. Nonetheless, more deep diving studies need to be deducted within the area but perhaps in the long term the study may contribute to increasing the reuse of flatglass.