JMVC Consulting Structural Engineers

A new state of the art review in the Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering (Springer Nature, 2026) takes a hard look at how reinforced concrete buildings actually fail during earthquakes, and the authors deliver a sharp conclusion. Ordinary design procedures, which check gravity, seismic, and abnormal load cases one at a time, do not catch progressive collapse triggered by earthquake damage.

The review pulls together experimental tests, nonlinear simulations, and probabilistic frameworks. It makes the case that progressive collapse should be treated as part of the seismic design procedure itself, not a separate analysis. For practicing engineers, that means tying together ASCE 7-22 robustness checks, ASCE/SEI 76-23, and ACI 318 Chapter 18 detailing into one coordinated assessment.

At JMVC Consulting Structural Engineers, we read these reviews so the projects we deliver stay aligned with the direction codes are moving.

Should progressive collapse checks be standard practice for every Risk Category III and IV building?