Disproportionate Collapse Analysis of Cable-stayed Steel Roofs for Cable Loss

Disproportionate collapse has been identified lately as a real cause of failure for structural engineering projects. Rare and unexpected, the phenomenon of disproportionate collapse usually results to many fatalities and thus, its analysis and mitigation is deemed necessary. This work describes the analysis of a cable-stayed steel roof under the scenario of a cable loss. The event of a cable loss is assumed to be brittle, while relevant recent recommendations suggest the application of a scaled equivalent static force at the points of the anchorage of the cable but in the opposite direction of the original cable force. In this paper, three different conditions have been considered in order to study the effect of the cable loss into the overall structural response of a typical cable-stayed roof; the level of the equivalent nodal load in the opposite direction of the original cable force varies. The steel structure of the roof, in its complexity, closer to responding as a cable-stayed bridge rather than a steel roof provides a useful template for conclusions; several topics regarding disproportionate collapse and cable losses are discussed.