Progressive Collapse Resistance In Educational Buildings: A Review

Abstract

Progressive collapse is a load disorder caused from damages in localized portion of column resulting into number 
failure, and this sequence repeat itself leading to partial or total make off of the building plan. A specific category 
of critical infrastructure that falls under this reference are educational structures consisting of schools, colleges 
and universities. Over the last two decades, the ability of such structures to resist progressive collapse has 
received a great deal of academic interest largely due to world-wide major structural failures or intentional 
attacks on public buildings. This review paper presents a meta-analysis of previous research on the mechanisms, 
evaluation approaches, design provisions and mitigation methods related to progressive collapse of educational 
buildings. Experimental investigations, numerical simulations and case study analyses are synthesised to reveal 
trends on methodological strengths and weaknesses as well as critical gaps in knowledge. It covers investigations 
using nonlinear dynamic analysis, alternate load path methods, key element methods and tie force approaches 
prescribed by standards including GSA 2016 and UFC 4-023-03. The technical paper investigates how collapse 
resistance is affected by the combination of structural typology, material properties, connection ductility and 
redundancy. The conclusions are that even though some progress has been made with regard to the understanding 
of progressive collapse mechanisms, more dedicated guidelines and robust assessment frameworks for 
educational facilities have yet to be developed, calling for further targeted research and drafting of code 
provisions.