Progressive collapse of seismic resistant multistory frame buildings

This paper evaluate the potential for progressive collapse of steel moment-resisting frame buildings designed according to the Italian Seismic Code. Three analysis procedures (linear static, nonlinear static and nonlinear dynamic) are applied to the problem of disproportionate collapse of steel moment frames due to a sudden column loss. In particular, a technique termed pushdown analysis that is inspired by the pushover method commonly used in earthquake engineering is applied to investigate the robustness of building for various missing column scenarios. The results are compared with dynamic analyses, and the dependence from location of column removal and number of building stories is finally investigated.