Lecture:
The World Trade Center
A Remembrance and a Summary of Results
of a 5-Year Structural Engineering Investigation
By
Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, Ph.D., P.E., (www.astaneh.net)
Professor, Department of Civil & Env. Engineering, University of
California, Berkeley
Very few people are aware of the fact that the WTC towers did not need
to follow any design code and did not need to obtain the construction
permit from the City. The structural system used in the towers was an
unusual system of "Steel Exterior Bearing Walls and Interior Compression
Columns" with no framing system in between. During this lecture, the
focus will be on the results of a five- years studies of the structural
aspects of the WTC design and the collapse. The 5-year analysis
primarily focused on finding an answer to the question of: "What would
have happened if instead of the unusual and relatively light bearing
wall structural system with no framing, used in the WTC towers, a more
traditional and code-based system of structural framing, used in other
structure, was used?"
The results presented here will show that if the towers were designed
following the code and using the traditional structural framing systems
used in almost any other building structure, such as moment frames,
braced frames, shear walls or tube systems, instead of the unique and
unusual system used in the collapsed WTC towers, the terrorist attacks
most likely would have resulted in only local damage and not complete
and catastrophic collapse of both towers where 3,000 people who were
trapped in them perished. It must be stated that those 19 murderers who
flew the passenger planes into the WTC Towers and their organizers and
backers are fully and directly responsible for this murderous act.
However, by learning from this criminal act, it is hoped that we can
prevent these criminals in the future from committing mass-murder using
our structures.
******* ****** ******* ******** ******* ******* ******* ***
* Read list FAQ at: http://www.seaint.org/list_FAQ.asp
*
* This email was sent to you via Structural Engineers
* Association of Southern California (SEAOSC) server. To
* subscribe (no fee) or UnSubscribe, please go to:
*
* http://www.seaint.org/sealist1.asp
*
* Questions to seaint-ad@seaint.org. Remember, any email you
* send to the list is public domain and may be re-posted
* without your permission. Make sure you visit our web
* site at: http://www.seaint.org
******* ****** ****** ****** ******* ****** ****** ********