Assessment of Progressive Collapse Proneness of Existing Typical Garment Factory Buildings in Bangladesh

Abstract

Concern for structural safety assurance has become more prominent in recent times in developing countries like Bangladesh because of structural failures. The Rana Plaza collapse of 2013 is an example of such structural failure. Based on postdamage analysis, the root cause of the structural failure of Rana Plaza has been identified as progressive collapse. Given the prevalence of ready-made garment (RMG) buildings and the large numbers of people associated with these facilities, proper evaluation of the structural safety of these buildings is essential, especially for signs of progressive collapse. This work aimed to quantitatively evaluate the behavior of typical RMG buildings with low-to-moderate concrete strength, focusing on progressive collapse. A comprehensive survey was conducted on existing RMG buildings to identify the prevalent design parameters. Consequently, a representative sample size was generated based on identified parameters. Afterward, finite element analysis of randomly selected structures from the generated samples was conducted to determine demand–capacity ratios (DCRs) of RMG buildings for three limit states corresponding to three cases of column removal. Subsequently, computed DCR values were organized in developing fragility curves and generalized graphs for each limit case, as simplified indicators of proneness toward progressive collapse for any relevant structure, without any requirement for complex numerical computations.