Sustainable steel reinforcement method for progressive collapse resistance in reinforced concrete buildings
Omer GHUNAIM, Bilal EL-ARISS, Said ELKHOLY
Abstract. Progressive collapse of Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings due to column failure can lead to serious damage consequences. Various mitigation methods have been proposed, almost all of which are externally installed post-construction, often costly and require new materials and devices and skilled labor. This study presents a practical, construction-phase mitigation approach aimed at enhancing the progressive collapse resistance of RC buildings, subjected to corner or side column removal. The approach is applied during construction and involves adding short, waste steel bars from the construction site into the slab around potential failed side or corner column to improve load redistribution. A three-dimensional nonlinear numerical model was developed, validated, and used to analyze the effectiveness of this approach. The proposed approach is eco-efficient as no new steel material is required leading to zero energy footprint associated with steel production, and it is cost-effective as it offers a practical simple solution for safeguarding RC buildings against progressive collapse and ensures their sustainability.
Keywords
Progressive Collapse, Applied Element Method, Numerical Modeling, Progressive Collapse Mitigation, Structural Strengthening
Published online 6/20/2026, 8 pages
Copyright © 2026 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Omer GHUNAIM, Bilal EL-ARISS, Said ELKHOLY, Sustainable steel reinforcement method for progressive collapse resistance in reinforced concrete buildings, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 67, pp 851-858, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644904176-117
The article was published as article 117 of the book Climate Action and Sustainability
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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