A two-step approach to progressive collapse analysis of building structures under blast loading

Structural collapse under blast loads is a very complex process. For several decades, the engineering profession has considered some approaches to analyze the essential physics of collapse phenomena. Recently, the interest in this topic has risen to an apex since the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. A two-step analysis approach to capture the characteristics of structural collapse during explosions is proposed. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the performance of the presented approach.