How Can a Steel Structure Survive to Impact Loading?

Abstract

Recent events such as natural catastrophes or terrorism attacks have highlighted the necessity to ensure the structural integrity of buildings under exceptional events. For more than 10 years, the University of Liege is strongly involved in researches further investigating the response of structures to such exceptional events [1, 2]. The present paper gives a global overview on recent or on-going developments performed at the University of Liege in the field of robustness of steel building structures subjected to impact loading leading to the loss of a column. The conducted studies are founded on a combination of experimental, numerical and analytical approaches with the final aim to propose simplified procedures useful for practitioners and allowing ensuring an appropriate level of robustness to structures for the considered scenario.