Title page for ETD etd-042907-214619

Document Type thesis

Author Name LaMalva, Kevin Joseph

URN etd-042907-214619

Title Failure Analysis of the World Trade Center 5 Building

Degree MS

Department Fire Protection Engineering

Advisors
Jonathan R. Barnett, Advisor
Donald O. Dusenberry, Co-Advisor

Keywords
structural collapse
WTC 5
World Trade Center 5
structural fire protection
Gerber beam design
progressive collapse
shear connections
thermal-stress analysis
steel construction

Date of Presentation/Defense 2007-05-01

Availability unrestricted

Abstract
This project involves a failure analysis of the internal structural collapse that occurred in World Trade Center 5 (WTC 5) due to fire exposure alone on September 11, 2001. It is hypothesized that the steel column-tree assembly failed during the heating phase of the fire. The results of this research have serious and far-reaching implications, for this method of construction is utilized in approximately 20,000 existing buildings and continues to be very popular. Catastrophic failure during the heating phase of a fire would endanger the lives of firefighters and building occupants undergoing extended egress times (e.g., high-rise buildings), or relying upon defend-in-place strategies (e.g., hospitals). Computer software was used to reconstruct the fire event and predict the structural performance of the assembly when exposed to the fire. Results from a finite element, thermal-stress model confirms this hypothesis, for it is concluded that the catastrophic, progressive structural collapse occurred approximately 2 hours into the fire exposure.

Files
Addendum.pdf
LaMalva.pdf

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Document Type	thesis
Author Name	LaMalva, Kevin Joseph
URN	etd-042907-214619
Title	Failure Analysis of the World Trade Center 5 Building
Degree	MS
Department	Fire Protection Engineering
Advisors	Jonathan R. Barnett, Advisor Donald O. Dusenberry, Co-Advisor
Keywords	structural collapse WTC 5 World Trade Center 5 structural fire protection Gerber beam design progressive collapse shear connections thermal-stress analysis steel construction
Date of Presentation/Defense	2007-05-01
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract This project involves a failure analysis of the internal structural collapse that occurred in World Trade Center 5 (WTC 5) due to fire exposure alone on September 11, 2001. It is hypothesized that the steel column-tree assembly failed during the heating phase of the fire. The results of this research have serious and far-reaching implications, for this method of construction is utilized in approximately 20,000 existing buildings and continues to be very popular. Catastrophic failure during the heating phase of a fire would endanger the lives of firefighters and building occupants undergoing extended egress times (e.g., high-rise buildings), or relying upon defend-in-place strategies (e.g., hospitals). Computer software was used to reconstruct the fire event and predict the structural performance of the assembly when exposed to the fire. Results from a finite element, thermal-stress model confirms this hypothesis, for it is concluded that the catastrophic, progressive structural collapse occurred approximately 2 hours into the fire exposure.
Files	Addendum.pdf LaMalva.pdf