Assessment on the Progressive Collapse Resistance of a Long-Span Curved Spatial Grid Structure with Main Trusses

Abstract

The present work is aimed at studying the progressive collapse resistance of the terminal building of Zhongchuan Airport in Lanzhou, China, which is a long-span curved spatial grid structure with main trusses. Firstly, the finite element model was built using MSC.Marc software. The alternate load path method (AP method) was used to simulate the initial failure of component. An improved method of zoned concept judgment and sensitivity analysis was proposed to determine the key components. Then, the initial failure components were removed individually on the course of analyzing. The responses of remaining structure were calculated using nonlinear dynamic analysis method. According to the results, the structure has a strong ability of resisting progressive collapse, though the structural responses are significant when removing the concrete filled steel tubular column directly supporting the roof at cantilever end. The maximum vertical displacement reaches 10 m. Moreover, the proposed method can avoid omitting the key components having significant influence on structural progressive collapse resistance. In addition, the influences brought by the cross-sectional sizes of chord and web members were investigated through conducting parametric analysis. The research can provide references for the structural optimization and safety control of similar long-span spatial structures.

Application of Sensitivity Analysis to Progressive Collapse Resistance of Planar Truss Structures

“…The quantitative formula of structural redundancy was given theoretically. Zhou [12] defined the node displacement response change after the initial failure as the object of sensitivity analysis to calculate the importance coefficient of the element. According to the sensitivity analysis, the structure robustness is evaluated by the change of structural strain energy after element failure, and the element importance is inversely proportional to the robustness coefficient, performed by Feng et al [13].…”