Robustness of Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (PPVC) High-rise Building

Due to the safety awareness arisen from natural and human-caused disasters, robustness design of building is increasingly important to ensure the stability of the building and to prevent progressive collapse. For this reason, the robustness design of innovative construction technologies such as modular construction may be essential due to its relative novel structural form and numerous joints among modules. Particularly in Singapore, Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (PPVC) has been highly promoted in residential and commercial buildings, hostels and hospitals to boost the construction productivity and quality as well as to reduce the reliance on foreign workforce. PPVC offers high quality and efficiency because most of the finishes and mechanical and electrical services are manufactured and installed together with the modules in factory, before sending for on-site assembly. To maximize the productivity of PPVC, modular design standardization and repetition can be improved by going for high-rise. Nonetheless, there are limited studies on the robustness of PPVC high-rise building and its behavior under progressive collapse remains uncertain. Therefore, this paper investigates the robustness of steel PPVC high-rise building under column removal scenarios by conducting non-linear numerical analysis. The effects of joint design and diaphragm action between modules are studied to ensure continuity of horizontal and vertical tying. This paper provides insight on the behaviour and alternative path for load transfer under column removal scenario for future design guideline of robustness PPVC building.