Innovative Engineering Addresses WTC Failures

**Sphere** · July 10, 2009, 05:10 PM

I was reading the new issue of Modern Steel Construction and came across this new building being design by Halverston & Partners out of Chicago, which is in the final stages of construction in Madrid.

It's unique design addresses the key progressive collapse failure mechanism that brought down both towers at the World Trade Center. That is the domino effect initiated by the collapse of a single floor which can ultimately bring down an entire building.

Halverston & Partners addressed this by taking 3 two story sections and inserting large steel trusses that connect to the cores. You can see these on the exterior as the 3 smaller windowless black segments. These trusses are not only strong enough to support the weight of the 11 story block of offices above it, but also "dangle" the 11 story block of offices below as well. This means you could collapse the entire center section of the building, and both the top and bottom sections would remain intact.

**GrnEyedDvl** · July 10, 2009, 05:30 PM

Thats pretty cool. I went to their website and found a .pdf of the article.
http://www.modernsteel.com/Uploads/I...nding_tall.pdf

**Sphere** · July 10, 2009, 05:49 PM

Thanks for the link

**C-Rob** · July 10, 2009, 06:13 PM

now all i need is a plane to smash into that building and we'll see if it all works out.

**GrnEyedDvl** · July 12, 2009, 08:25 AM

Originally Posted by C-Rob

now all i need is a plane to smash into that building and we'll see if it all works out.

While that would be the ultimate test I would prefer it didnt happen that way. You can do a lot of simulation and even work with scale size models and small explosives.

I think the thing to take away from the article is that there are people out there coming up with new ideas. This may not be the best available solution, but even the attempt is better than taking no action at all. 100 years ago buildings got knocked flat by mild earthquakes and today there are all kinds of things they do to help protect from earthquakes.