Analysis of a Damaged Building near Ground Zero

An NSF-funded MCEER research team visited Ground Zero twice in the two weeks following the attacks of September 11, 2001, to collect perishable data related to the collapse of the two 110 story towers and collateral damage to buildings and infrastructure surrounding the World Trade Center complex. The visit on September 23 involved a walk-through of one high-rise building that was badly damaged by large pieces of debris that were ejected from World Trade Center Tower 2 as it collapsed. This summary report presents information from the subsequent analysis of a building frame with properties similar to those of the damaged building. Linear and nonlinear analyses were undertaken, however, only the linear analyses are presented here. Such analyses shows that the use of rigid beam-to-column connections in the building frame enabled gravity loads in the frame above the segment of the building that partially collapsed to be transferred to adjacent undamaged vertical components