Review of Structural Analysis and Design to Prevent Disproportionate Collapse by Feng Fu

In recent years there has been renewed interest in the progressive collapse of structures and also increased awareness of the need to understand the mechanisms involved, especially after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. From the historical perspective, the study of progressive structural collapse began in the 1940s, when Baker (1948) began to study the way in which buildings collapsed under bombing in London during the Second World War. Also in London, in 1968, the collapse of the Ronan Point apartment block induced the authorities to change building codes to make them consider the risk of progressive collapse in the design stage.

There have been many accidents as a result of the progressive collapse of structures; the best known cases include the collapse of the Ronan Point Building in 1968; the attack on the U.S. Marines Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983; the partial collapse of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995; and the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. However, the problem is not confined to buildings; it also can appear in bridges (e.g., Interstate-35W (I-35W) in Minneapolis in 2007, and Kutai Kartanegara in East Borneo in 2011) or in space structures (e.g., Charles de Gaulle Airport Terminal in Paris in 2004).

Progressive collapse may be because of diverse reasons: fire, gas explosions, terrorist attacks with explosives, and vehicle impact, although the biggest fear at present is the damage that could be caused by terrorists using explosives, a threat to which many countries all over the world are now subject.

In the last 15 years, great advances have been made in this field, especially in building structures. These advances have led to the publication and updating of codes and design recommendations, and the diffusion of results in the form of scientific articles and papers read at congresses. However, in spite of these advances, there still are not enough books available that describe how to include specific measures to avoid structural progressive collapse in the design stage, unlike, for example, what has happened in the case of protecting structures from the effects of earthquakes.

In 2009, Professor U. Starossek of the Hamburg University of Technology, Germany, took the excellent initiative of sharing his experience in this field in his book, “Progressive Collapse of Structures,” published by Thomas Telford (Starossek 2009). Although this book was a success and became a reference of great interest, other authors have not published new books dealing with the subject.

As his professional background and research work bear witness, the author of the reviewed book, Dr. Feng Fu, has wide experience in the field of the disproportionate collapse of structures. He has published a number of papers in high impact journals and is a committee member of the Disproportionate Collapse Mitigation of Building Structure Standards and Blast Protection of Building Structure Standards of the American Society of Civil Engineers and, therefore, is ideally qualified to write such a book.

This book is divided into seven chapters and considers the disproportionate collapse of three types of structure (multistorey buildings, space structures, and bridges), and analyzes the effects of fire and blasts. The book is quite compact, only 184 pages, and gives an interesting introduction to the phenomenon of disproportionate collapse of structures and offers suggestions on how to mitigate its effects. Because the book is short, it does not offer an indepth analysis of the problem, but even so it can be considered a useful introduction to the subjects for students, architects, and engineers.

All the chapters (except Chapters 1 and 7) are similarly organized; they begin by introducing the problem, some case studies are described, aspects of design and methods of mitigating failures are commented on, and a numerical simulation of a case study is given.

The last parts of Chapters 2–6 are especially interesting because they deal with the finite element modeling (FEM) simulation of actual structures, mostly by means of ABAQUS software. Even though more advanced tools are now available to simulate the progressive collapse of structures, the author does not refer to them in his book.

Some criticisms could be made as regards the numerical simulations. First, bcause the figures and captions do not indicate the units represented by colors, the reader is unable to interpret the results. Second, readers will not be able to reproduce the models because not enough details are provided about them. In this regard, the author could perhaps have made the model codes available on a Web page to those readers interested in reproducing them. Third, the analysis of the results of the numerical models does not go deep enough and does not offer clear conclusions. However, considering the limited size of the book, it is understandable that these slight defects should appear.

All the chapters contain a good number of references that will allow readers to gather further information on any aspects that might interest them. However, in spite of the apparently sufficient number of references, some important ones are missing; for example, one is surprised by the absence of any reference to Professor Starossek’s book published in 2009.

For some years, there has been a demand for books to be published on the advances made in the field of the progressive collapse of structures. The codes have experienced radical changes and a great deal of research has been carried out on the subject, which could be unified in book form.

In this book, the reader will not find either a detailed description of the mechanisms that lead up to progressive collapse or suggestions on how to mitigate its effects. Neither is there information on the latest advances in this field of research, nor of the latest techniques in numerical simulation. Indeed, it is very likely that the author did not have these aims in mind when he wrote this book. What the reader will find, in fact, is an excellent introduction to the progressive collapse of structures that will allow the understanding of the basic aspects of this phenomenon and help improve structural designs. To sum up, this is a compact and clearly written book that the reader will find easy to read.

Students of civil or structural engineering and architecture who wish to enter the field of progressive collapse will find this book very useful, although experienced engineers, architects, and researchers in this field may not find it quite as helpful because its scope does not permit a deeper analysis than the one carried out.

In spite of the need for more books to be published that offer a detailed analysis of the progressive collapse of structures, especially in buildings, Dr. Fu should be commended and congratulated for this initiative.