DoD Research and Criteria for the Design of Buildings to Resist Progressive Collapse

Abstract

The collapse of conventional/nonhardened structures was a concern of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for years before the collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2011 (9-11), owing to the bombings of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the U.S. embassies in Africa, and the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon. Since 9-11, motivated by the lack of any meaningful U.S. progressive collapse design requirements, DoD has worked with the civilian community on a number of significant efforts to improve the design of buildings to resist disproportionate collapse. The DoD efforts have included laboratory and field experiments, numerical simulations, and development of design requirements. Synergy and coordination with the civilian community resulted in combined programs with the General Services Administration, guidance and feedback provided by the ASCE Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) Committee on Disproportionate Collapse Standards and Guidance (DCSG) and its members, and adoption of some European civilian approaches to progressive collapse design. A significant result of the DoD effort was the creation of Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC) 4-023-03, Design of Buildings to Resist Progressive Collapse. The approaches employed in UFC 4-023-03 are currently being evaluated and modified for civilian applications by the SEI DCSG committee. The development and underlying approaches used in UFC 4-023-03 are briefly summarized in this paper, as are the previous DoD laboratory and field tests and numerical simulations.