Open Journal of Civil Engineering, 2013, 3, 166-172 http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojce.2013.33020 Published Online September 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojce) Progressive Collapse of RC Frames Due to Heavy Impact Loads of Tsunami Abdullah Keyvani 1 , Leila Keyvani 2 1 Department of Civil Engineering, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran 2 College of Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, USA Email: keyvani@azaruniv.edu, Lkeyvani@neu.edu Received July 3, 2013; revised August 3, 2013; accepted August 10, 2013 Copyright © 2013 Abdullah Keyvani, Leila Keyvani. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribu- tion License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT Progressive collapse is a relatively rare event, as it requires both an abnormal loading to initiate the local damage and a structure that lacks adequate continuity, ductility and redundancy to resist the spread of damage. However, significant casualties can result when collapse occurs. Heavy impact loads due to tsunami against building can be one of the sce- narios of progressive collapse during tsunami disaster. Since progressive collapse includes material and geometry nonlinearity during collapse propagation, in the present research capability of 2 models for the material nonlinearity in simulating actual behavior of structures during collapse is compared with recent experimental results of a Reinforced Concrete (RC) frame. The results demonstrate that a material nonlinearity model, that is based on the idealized compo- nent load-deformation behavior, is not a proper representation for the real behavior of structures during progressive collapse and is so conservative. Keywords: Collapse; Impact Loads of Tsunami; Material Nonlinearity; Fiber Elements; RC Frames 1. Introduction While earthquakes and tsunamis are inevitable forces of nature, it is possible to be better prepared for them so that the damage to infrastructure can be minimized. To save lives, efficient tsunami-warning systems need to be put in place for the evacuation of people from coastal areas. The physical, economic and financial loss to the coastal community can also be reduced by having tsunami resis- tant designs for houses and other infrastructure in the region. The potential catastrophic effects of tsunami-induced loading on the infrastructure in the vicinity of shorelines have been brought to the fore by recent global events. However, state of-the-art building codes remain silent or provide conflicting guidance on designing near shoreline structures in tsunami-prone areas. This paper focuses on tsunami-induced impact loading and its effect on pro- gressive collapse of structures. The Asian tsunami of 26 December 2004 showed the catastrophic devastation that could be caused by a tsunami to human lives, infrastruc- ture and economy [1,2]. The tsunami claimed more than 220,000 lives and made almost 800,000 people homeless. The total economic cost of the catastrophe is estimated to be more than £7.5 billion. Heavy impact loads due to tsunami against building can be one of the scenarios of progressive collapse dur- ing tsunami disaster. Progressive collapse as one of the important threats against the safety and stability of struc- tures has attracted attention of researchers and structural designers in recent decades. Progressive collapse is de- fined as the spread of an initial local failure from element to element eventually resulting in collapse of an entire structure or a disproportionately large part of it. The ini- tial cause of the local failure can be man-made such as explosions or natural such as earthquake [3]. Progressive collapse is a relatively rare event, as it re- quires both an abnormal loading to initiate the local da- mage and a structure that lacks adequate continuity, duc- tility, and redundancy to resist the spread of damage [4]. However, significant casualties can result when collapse occurs. Up until then, standards had no emphasis on system- level behavior of structures. The British Standards re- quired consideration of progressive collapse in buildings taller than five stories and provisions for structural ties. In the 1970s, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Operation Breakthrough examined the Copyright © 2013 SciRes. OJCE