Introducing a novel experimental setup for assessing the progressive collapse resistance of structures

[EN] The paper describes the development process of a novel experimental setup to assess the ability of a structural system to arrest collapse propagation. Unlike traditional pushdown tests, the proposed setup allows more realistic interactions of different failure modes during a collapse process. The adopted boundary conditions and loading protocol were designed and calibrated using advanced computational simulations representing full-building (global) responses. Then, a particular portion of the building (subassembly) was extracted, scaled down, and constructed in our laboratory. It is expected that the new setup will help to reveal new and insightful information about the progressive collapse phenomenon.