Dynamic amplification factor for moment resisting frames in progressive collapse

Abstract

Progressive collapse has been a prevalent research topic since a gas explosion caused the collapse of the Ronan Point apartment building in 1968. Progressive collapse occurs when an instantaneous loss of a supporting element causes failure in adjacent members leading to a large scale collapse of the structure. The General Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) have provided design guidelines regarding progressive collapse mitigation. The guidelines provide requirements for setting up static and dynamic, linear and nonlinear analyses. In particular, a dynamic amplification factor (DAF) of 2 is recommended to account for the dynamic effects when performing a static analysis. Recent studies have determined that the GSA and the UFC guidelines provide an overly conservative dynamic amplification factor. In this thesis, various frames were analyzed using SAP2000 for all four analysis methods and the results were used to make recommendations regarding a more appropriate dynamic amplification factor. Additionally, the role of dynamic and nonlinear effects were observed and compared for the four different analysis methods.