Engineering and Organizational Issues Related to the World Trade Center Terrorist Attack. Volume 4: From the WTC Tragedy to the Development of Disaster Engineering for Landmark Buildings: An Extension of the Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering Appro

摘要

The September 11, 2001 (9/11) terrorist attack on the World Trade Center (WTC) complex produced an unprecedented disaster in New York City and the United States. Many technical studies and investigations are continuing to pursue various detailed aspects of the disasters impact. From a strictly structural mechanics point of view, the collapse of the WTC towers was mainly the result of extreme multi-hazard loadings (collision, fire and explosion) that subjected the buildings to forces that were beyond the hazard capacity that they were designed to withstand. In this report, the authors first review the various hazard loadings that were applied to the WTC towers (impact of airplanes, fire and explosion), mainly reported by others, to identify potential multi-hazard design improvements for structural members and their connections, as well as for entire building systems.