On Potential Progressive Failure of Large-Panel Buildings

The potential vulnerability of engineering structures to extreme loading actions, due to which a progressive failure of the entire structure or of a major part of it may develop, emphasizes the need to develop comprehensive analytical procedures for the assessment of the potential progressive collapse of structural systems. This paper aims at presenting a method for calculation of the stability of large-prefabricated panel buildings with interior load bearing walls. Assume that the structural system behaves as a plastic system that is subjected to a severe disturbance, which causes a local failure that may develop into a progressive collapse. It is the objective of this paper to assess the damaged structural system in order to determine whether a new stable structural system will form that is able to maintain static equilibrium and carry the loads or whether stability cannot be attained and a process of progressive collapse will follow. That important observation of whether a progressive collapse will follow or not can be done by static analysis of the damaged structure, whereas the progressive collapse process requires dynamic analysis and is beyond the scope of this paper. The basics of the method were originally developed by Strugatsky (1936–2000), but gained limited exposure and were published in sources of limited access [Strugatsky (1980) in Investigation of Bearing Concrete and Reinforced Concrete Structures of Multistory Precast Buildings, MINITEP, Moscow, 74–111; Strugatsky and Eisman (1989) in Design Guide of Residential Buildings, Construction of Residential Building, Appendix 2, SNIP, Moscow, 232–268; Shapiro et al. (2000), Report to Administration of Moscow, Moscow] and are therefore almost unknown. Due to its engineering significance and relevance, it was adopted as the grounds of an extended methodology that was developed recently and is presented in this paper. For the sake of completeness, this paper provides a concise presentation of the main principles of the method that refers to an initial local failure in the exterior envelope of a structure with cross interior load-bearing walls, and further extends the model. The extended model also addresses local failures that develop within the interior part of the structure and generalizes the approach to consider a larger family of buildings that include transverse or longitudinal interior bearing walls. As panel buildings seem to be a basic structural system, the approach developed herein may establish the foundations to an approach that may be later extended to systems that include other structural components such as frames, infill walls, etc.