The FAILNOMORE project - Practice-oriented design recommendations against progressive collapse in steel and steel-concrete buildings

Structural robustness is a specific safety consideration which is currently addressed
in modern codes and standards, including the Eurocodes. It requires particular care
from all professionals involved in the construction industry. The need for practical
guidelines to mitigate the risk of progressive collapse has been emphasised by re cent catastrophic events such as the 9/11 terrorist attack in New-York. The lack of
consistent design rules for practitioners is however clearly identified in existing nor mative documents and literature. Accordingly, various research projects were
launched, particularly in Europe through RFCS research projects. Thanks to these
research activities, significant scientific background has been developed, with the
aim of understanding and characterising the behaviour of steel and composite struc tures subjected to exceptional events such as impact, explosion, or loss of a bearing
member. Nevertheless, there was a need to consolidate the available scientific
knowledge and to transform it into a consistent set of practical recommendations in
order to facilitate the design of steel and composite structures for robustness. This
was the purpose of a recent RFCS project “FAILNOMORE” (grant No 899371) which
was concluded in June 2022. A brief summary and discussion of the main outcomes
of this project are provided in the present paper