Stability Assessment of Steel Moment Frames against Progressive Collapse

Progressive collapse means gradual destruction of a part of a structure resulting from uncommon damage and expansion of this destruction to other parts of the structure. The damage can be caused by an explosion, earthquake, being hit by a vehicle or a sudden collapse etc. The damage is often applied to the structure dynamically and during a short time period. After the destruction of Ronand’s Building and engineers’ focus on progressive collapse, a wave of research on protective methods or reducing the structure’s potential against progressive collapse started. In the beginning the result was in the form of some changes in codes; however, after a few years when a couple of similar happenings occurred, separate codes were set to reduce or protect destruction. Two of these codes which deal with progressive collapse separately are Department of Defense (DOD) [1] and General Service Administration (GSA) [2].