Which type of collapse has a pattern of floor and or roof assemblies on both sides of a load-bearing wall?

• A. V-shaped
• B. A-frame
• C. W-shape
• D. Cantilever

Answer: (A)

When you’re reading a collapse pattern, you’re looking for how the building gums up around a key structural element, like a load-bearing wall. If the floor and roof on both sides of that wall give way, the structure tends to fall outward from the wall, creating a V-shaped profile. The wall sits at the vertex of the V, with debris raking away on either side. That two-sided failure around a central bearing wall is what defines a V-shaped collapse.

This differs from other patterns: cantilever involves one side dropping while the other remains anchored, an A-frame describes a triangular frame collapse pattern, and a W-shape describes more complex, multi-bay failures. The two-sided, wall-centered failure is the hallmark of the V-shaped collapse.