Application of Sensitivity Analysis to Progressive Collapse Resistance of Planar Truss Structures

The conventional sensitivity analysis method unanimously takes all remaining elements except the damaged ones as statistical objects, and element importance is evaluated by the mean value of the sensitive indices of statistical objects. However, from the perspective of resisting progressive collapse, the method is not sufficiently targeted, and the evaluation results have some mistakes. The shortcomings of the traditional sensitivity analysis method in element importance evaluation were analyzed and compared through finite element investigations of two types of planar trusses. Based on the anti-progressive collapse mechanism of the planar truss, the sensitivity analysis method with lower chords as statistical objects was proposed to evaluate the importance of planar truss structural elements. This method is conceptually straightforward, and the assessment results are beyond-compare regarding accuracy via comparison against the results of other evaluation methods. Furthermore, based on identifying important elements, the structure’s bearing capacity can be improved by targeted anti-progressive collapse design.