A review of progressive collapse research and regulations

History has demonstrated that buildings designed to conventional design codes can lack the robustness necessary to withstand localised damage, partial or even complete collapse. This variable performance has led governmental organisations to seek ways of ensuring all buildings of significant size possess a minimum level of robustness. The research community has responded by advancing understanding of how structures behave when subjected to localised damage. Regulations and design recommendations have been developed to help ensure more consistent resilience in all framed buildings of significant size, and rigorous design approaches have been specified for buildings deemed potentially vulnerable to extreme loading events. This paper summarises some of the more important progressive collapse events, to identify key attributes that lead to vulnerability to collapse. Current procedures and guidelines for ensuring a minimum level of performance are reviewed and modelling methods for structures subjected to localised damage are described. These include increasingly sophisticated progressive collapse analysis procedures, including linear static and non-linear static analysis, as well as non-linear static pushover and linear dynamic methods. Finally, fully non-linear dynamic methods are considered. Building connections potentially represent the most vulnerable structural elements in steel-framed buildings; their failure can lead to progressive collapses. Steel connections also present difficulties with respect to frame modelling and this paper highlights benefits and drawbacks of some modelling procedures with respect to their treatment of connections

Introduction. Organisational lessons from failure

This special issue of the highly respected Civil Engineering journal from the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers looks to study and learn from the catastrophes, collapses and failures that fascinate and horrify the civil engineering community.<br/

British civil engineering skills: defusing the time bomb

The UK's civil engineering industry is facing a demographic time bomb. Half the country's chartered civil engineers—a total of 15 000 professionals—are likely to retire in the next ten years. During that period only 6 000 new graduates are expected to join the profession, leaving a shortfall of around 9 000 civil engineers. This paper analyses these alarming statistics and concludes that more funding is needed for domestic civil engineering degree courses if Britain is to avoid becoming reliant on foreign civil engineering skills

An analysis of inter shear-stud slip in composite beams

A full interaction method is presented for calculating the elastic bending stresses and shear stud forces in composite beams with shear studs at discrete points. The method implicitly recognises the breaks in the shear connection at the steel-concrete interface. Shear transfer discontinuities are shown to lead to significant variations in direct bending stress over those predicted from the method of transformed sections. These variations are most pronounced in deep beams supporting shallow composite slabs

Graduate shortage: the key to civil engineering's future?

Recent years have seen a steady decline in admissions to UK civil engineering degree courses such that an intense skills shortage looms. Civil engineering graduates will be in greater demand than ever before—but ironically this could finally trigger the increase in status that the profession has sought for so long. This paper reveals the roller-coaster trend in university admissions since 1966 and shows why many of the engineering departments across the country are now struggling to survive. But, reassuringly, there are signs that the profession is at last attracting an increasing number of high-calibre students.<br/