Research Advances in Design of Structures to Resist Progressive Collapse

Given the catastrophic consequences following progressive collapse, designs to mitigate such events are of great interest to both the academic and engineering communities. This has led to the development of numerous design guidelines across the world to facilitate such efforts. Many authoritative papers were prepared, especially in the past decade, to evaluate the reliability of existing design methods for progressive collapse assessment. The deficiencies in existing guidelines on critical issues, such as dynamic effects, tie force and integrity approaches, slab effects, and acceptance criteria, are addressed based on the findings from some significant technical papers. Recommendations are included to identify the current concerns on developing existing design guidelines and also present a state-of-the-art review of the proposed refinements. Potential areas for future research are also explored. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.