Robustness of steel structures subjected to a column loss scenario

Recent events such as natural catastrophes or terrorism attacks have highlighted the necessity to ensure the structural integrity of buildings under an exceptional event. According to the modern design codes, the struc-tural integrity of civil engineering structures should be ensured through appropriate measures but, in most cas-es, no precise practical guidelines on how to achieve this goal are provided. The Eurocode dealing with this topic is Eurocode 1, Part 1-7. For the above mentioned reason, this Eurocode is presently under revision with the objective of providing improved general recommendations to ensure an appropriate structural robustness in case exceptional events. In this framework, the robustness of steel and composite steel-concrete building frames is investigated at the University of Liege for many years following the so-called “alternative load path method”. The present paper gives a global overview of the ongoing researches in the field of robustness at the University of Liège.