Fuse-based segmentation: the last line of defence against catastrophic building failures

Synopsis

Structural collapse is often the result of a 'local-to-global' failure sequence, where an initial local failure propagates to the rest of the building system, resulting in a disproportionate collapse. While current design guidelines effectively mitigate collapse initiation through structural continuity and redundancy, they lack specific strategies to arrest a spreading collapse once it has begun. This aspect is what the Endure and Encast projects aim to achieve, introducing a new design philosophy to prevent the propagation of collapse. The approach is inspired by autotomy, the process by which lizards shed their tails to escape predators. It treats the problem from a systems perspective, whereby the hierarchy of failures is carefully engineered so that specific elements fail before the most critical components fail, ensuring global integrity. This deliberate disconnection prevents the failure front from propagating to the rest of the structure (i.e., implementing a safe-to-fail mechanism). The approach has been validated through subassembly laboratory tests and a full-scale building test for both cast-in-situ and precast concrete systems. The test results confirm that collapse propagation can be controlled and arrested in a cost-effective manner without compromising buildings’ ability to develop alternative load paths. The findings are expected to inform a new paradigm for resilient building design, offering a strategic approach that safeguards buildings against catastrophic failure. 

About the speaker

Andri is currently working as a Junior Group Leader at Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV). He leads the Enring project, which aims to develop a multi-layered defence framework to increase the structural resilience of critical facilities against multiple hazards (funded by the La Caixa Foundation). Meanwhile, he also contributes to Endure (an ERC Consolidator Grant project) and Encast (a proof-of-concept project within the framework of Endure), both hosted at UPV and led by Prof. Jose Adam (Principal Investigator). Both are funded by the European Commission, whereas the Generalitat Valenciana funded his research fellowship. The Endure project aims to develop a novel fuse-based segmentation design approach to arrest the propagation of failures in building structures, whereas Encast seeks to translate this new philosophy to its specific application for precast building systems. Before coming to Spain, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at iBETON, EPFL, Switzerland (funded by the Swiss Excellence programme). He was involved in SlabSTRESS, a transnational initiative initiated by the EU Joint Research Centre (JRC) in collaboration with researchers from Portugal, Italy, and Romania. The project aims to develop new provisions in the next generation of Eurocode 8 for flat slab systems built in earthquake-prone areas. He also contributed to a national research project funded by the Swiss Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) to develop an assessment procedure for evaluating the safety of existing bridges in Switzerland. He obtained his PhD degree from Imperial College London. His PhD thesis was awarded the prestigious Adam Neville Prize for the best national PhD in the field of cement and concrete in the UK.

Registration

The event is open to all and is free to attend. Please join the meeting via Teams^* by clicking on this link.

Further information

The talk is organised by SECED Young Members. For further information, please contact Mohamed Elzeadani (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

* Microsoft Teams is freely available on all major platforms, including Windows, Linux, MacOS, Android and iOS. To download and install the software, follow this link. SECED is not sponsored by or otherwise affiliated with Microsoft, and we do not endorse any Microsoft products.