The seismic performance of steel buildings retrofitted with steel cables against progressive collapse

Code-conforming buildings designed against earthquake have an inherent robustness against horizontal loads. However, when they are subjected to member-loss scenarios, typically they develop particularly large deflections. To avoid such an undesirable behaviour, various methods have been employed to increase the buildings’ progressive collapse resistance. Such a method is the installation of steel cables in strategically selected bays of the building. As described in existing works, it is possible to properly define the cable properties so that they do not affect the seismic performance of the structures when assessed using the applicable design codes up to the design earthquake, but they are effective in element loss scenarios. This paper investigates the effect of different cable configurations in the seismic performance and collapse potential of steel buildings retrofitted against progressive collapse. It aims to identify the alteration in the structural behaviour and propose an approach in order to optimize the beneficial effect of the installed components.