Assessment of Seismic Performance of RC Frames and the Evaluation of Robustness Index for Progressive Collapse with Alternative Path Method

Progressive failure is the spread of a chain of damage from one member to another in a structure that, following local damage caused by the removal of one or more load-bearing members, begins and is disproportionately transferred to the other members of the structure. The whole or destruction becomes a large part of the structure. In the discussion of progressive failure, determining the element that has the greatest potential for progressive failure is important. Because by strengthening this element, the performance of the structure can be improved. In this paper, the progressive failure of two reinforced concrete structures with a different number of floors (10 and 16-storey buildings) using nonlinear dynamic analysis is investigated. The analysis and design of this structure has been done in SAP 2000 software and modeling has been done by creating local failure in the middle column and corner column under the influence of three different acceleration angles. The relative displacement of the floors, the viscosity index based on the maximum base cut and the formation of plastic joints, and the possibility of progressive failure based on existing standards and design based on the GSA guideline alternative method have been investigated. The results of this study show that in reinforced concrete buildings, the bending frame of the corner columns has the highest potential for progressive failure. In addition, the results show that structures with higher heights perform better against progressive failure.