The project has addressed the problem of fast repair of buildings after a strong earthquake. It also addressed the problem of progressive collapse in steel buildings when a vertical element, such as a column, is suddenly lost, for example due to explosion, accidental impact etc.
Steel buildings designed according to current Codes of Practice (for example, Eurocode 8) experience extended damage after an earthquake. This damage is often difficult to repair. As a result there are significant socio-economic losses due to the repair cost and excessive downtime. There is also the major problem of residual deformations, and if they are significant, it may be financially more viable to demolish a building rather than repair it after a strong seismic event. Progressive collapse of a building due to a loss of column is a rare event but it may have devastating consequences, including numerous fatalities. It is therefore important to design buildings that are able to recover fast from strong earthquakes, i.e. with increased resilience, and to mitigate the consequences of progressive collapse.
Objectives:
1. To develop a seismic resistant steel frame that can drastically reduce the residual deformations of a steel frame after a strong seismic event, and to limit damage to easily-replaceable structural elements, the so-called sacrificial devices.
2. To develop novel structural details to design or retrofit vulnerable steel beam-column joints for increased safety against progressive collapse due to an abnormal event, such as a sudden column removal.
3. To design and assess, both experimentally and numerically, the structural behaviour of the sacrificial devices, and fine-tune their properties to meet the design targets.
4. To evaluate the seismic performance and resilience of concentrically braced frames equipped with such devices.
5. To evaluate the progressive collapse resistance of nominally-pinned joints equipped with the above novel structural details for progressive collapse mitigation.
