Progressive collapse of rigid and semi-rigid jointed steel frames according to GSA 2013 and GSA 2003 guidelines

Prevalent governmental guidelines issued by US General Services Administration (GSA) and US Department of Defense (DoD) are widely used for design of structures against progressive collapse. Significant studies have been carried out for progressive collapse of steel and reinforced concrete framed structures according to these guidelines. These guidelines are also being constantly updated based upon the outcome of researches being carried out worldwide. Recently, DoD guidelines were updated in 2005 and 2009; whereas, GSA was following its 2003 guidelines. Major discrepancies were there between the 2009 version of DoD and 2003 version of GSA. To remove these discrepancies, GSA recently updated its guidelines in 2013. In the present study, the progressive collapse study of nine storied rigid and semi-rigid jointed steel frames has been carried out according to (GSA 2013) and (GSA 2003). Subsequent changes in modeling parameters and acceptance criteria from (GSA 2003) to (GSA 2013) and their influences in design are discussed in the present study.