Debris and fire from the airplanes that sliced through the World Trade Center twin towers in 2001 robbed those buildings of enough critical fireproofing material to contribute to their collapse, a computer simulation using 3-D animation suggests.
It also suggests a bit of a quandary for public policy makers and builders going forward.
From the Associated Press:
The two-year Purdue University study, funded in part by the National Science Foundation, was the first to use 3-D animation to provide visual context to the attacks, said Christoph Hoffmann, a professor of computer science and one of the lead researchers on the project.
“One thing it does point out… is the absolute essential nature of fireproofing steel structures,” Hoffmann told The Associated Press.
As for the quandary, that’s made clear in another comment about the report from one of its authors:
Mete Sozen, a professor of structural engineering and a lead investigator on the simulation, said Purdue researchers hope their work leads to better structural design and building codes to prevent similar collapses.
“In the unfortunate development that we shall have to design structures to survive such events, the methods we have developed and will be developing will be of great use to designers,” Sozen said.
So do we need to design structures to survive such events?
Well, I suppose it would depend on the costs involved and other benefits to be derived from such extraordinary safety measures.
But given that the costs would likely be significant and the benefits limited, I’d argue that building skyscrapers to withstand such a calamity would be wasteful if not foolish.
But I venture way outside my knowledge base here. Anyone else have any thoughts?
