The Collapse of the World Trade Centre - Coursework Example

The Collapse of the World Trade Center Introduction The collapse of the world trade center in September of 2001 is one of the greatest calamities to hit not only the United States but also the entire world in the 21st century. The tragedy caused many deaths that led to the government paying attention to the various issues that it had previously ignored with relation to the security of the country and the concept of terrorism. Many people have discussed the various issues regarding the collapse of the World Trade Center. Most of the information offered is regarding the political and economic causes of the collapse. However, little information has been offered on the engineering side and it is thus imperative to go through several of the speculations regarding the collapse of the building looking at the structural side of the matter. The causes of the Collapse Engineers have stated that the major cause of the collapse for the building was due to the failure of certain components critical to the structure of the building. The engineers state that after the initial attack, there was the beginning of huge fires in the inside of the building. These fires were so hot that they made the joists of the building weak and consequently they failed to support the weight of the building leading to the immediate collapse (Bjorkman, 2013). The engineers of the building had carried out an appropriate job by making sure that they backed up the joists with concrete slabs. These slabs were important in that they assisted to ensure in case of tragedy such as the one that happened, the joists would have received assistance from the concrete. However, in this particular case, there was failure of the concrete to assist because they had already been demolished by the high impact caused by the crash of the airplanes that hit the building when the attack began (Eagar, 2013). System of Building The System of building used by the engineers that constructed the World Trade Centre used a method of building commonly referred to as tubular framing. The perimeter frames that were used to consteruct the building were embedded internally so as to prevent forces that may be caused by issues or rather natural calamities such as earthquakes. Earthquakes unlike the attack that took place are rather subtle on the top part of the building as opposed to the force that hit the building directly. Every floor of the building was made of tubular pipes that were meant to support it in the case of forces. However, they did not succeed in the case of the September attack that saw the building losing foundation from every floor and falling drastically. It is imperative to note that it was only the floors that were attacked that led to the falling of the entire building (Daniels, 2010, 54). When these floors were hit, they became lose bringing down anything upon it. The heaviness that they had led to the cumulative weight that led to the entire building hitting the ground. The construction engineers that made the building stated that the slabs on the floor were composite. If they had been composite, they would have withstood any amount of force imposed on them. This is the reason as to why the engineers employed to understand the actual cause of the collapse came up with the idea or rather concluded that the initial engineers did not put studs from the steel beams embedded in the concrete and this is the basic form of engineering (Samuels, 2011). The major causes of the collapse of the World Trade Center were the Equations of Motion. The engineers concluded that different equation forms based on continuum estimation lead to the weakening of the foundations of the building floors. They state that discrete motion equations are responsible for the collapse of the building. Under the single dimension model, there is the fact that if a line or rather two lines moving across the building may get shorter in the case of a serious or rather a heavy collision. Using a 3D image, one can get to understand the various issues surrounding this as it shows that the various floors in the building had to have had strength or rather a strong basement as compared to other parts of the building that are higher or rather elevated (Hassan, 2009, 57). According to the model, there is a conclusion that as an individual goes higher, the floors of the floors are weaker with the contemporary engineering having the top most parts of the building having 100 times less the strengths that the lower parts of the building have. According to the engineers, this was the major reason that saw the building collapse. The airplanes that hit the building hit the upper parts of the building leading to the building’s upper floors being weak and consequently leading to the collapse of the entire building (Taffesse, 2012, 48). It is also to understand this with reference to Energy Dissipation sources. It is important to understand that save for the energy of the comminution, there was the energy of the parameters. These are the steel wires used to hold the building with the concrete. However, this did not happen given the fact that these parameters did not exist. The initial engineers had been so sloppy that they had failed to put these on all the 126 floors. As luck may have had the attackers and to the misfortune of the United States residents and victims, the airplanes happened to hit some of the few floors that did not have the parameters. This is a major factor considered by the government when it states that the attack was premeditated and that the foreign attackers had someone working with them in the United States for the to know exactly which weak floors to hit in order to get the result that they had (Pearson, 2011, 97). Analysis and Findings after the Collapse Based on calculations of the simple estimates made within the surface areas of the fallen pieces, understanding the frictional forces of the collisions, an individual gets to understand that summed up energy produced by the afromentioned progressions was very small as compared to the one needed to deform the fractures to particles is very minimal. With this, there is the understanding that the actions of the attackers were minimal and that the building would not have lasted a long time due to poor engineering (Vanderwerf, 2007, 38). There is also the issue of crushing of the columns that led to the collapse of the building. It is important to understand that in a building, the upper column commonly known as column A is always in contact with Column B and C. These are the middle part of the building and the lower part consequently. After the building began collapsing, the columns became weak beginning with the upper part of the building. This upper part of the building is very small as compared to the lower part of the building. The columns had the effect of becoming weaker with every floor that went down owing to insecure joists. These joists are important in that they assist the floors of a building maintain the actual strength that they require (Vasil, 2009, 193). When the building was going through the crush down process, the columns were trembling as they passed through every floor of the building making even the floors with hard steel concretes weak. This brought around a chain process that saw the entire building going down in such a manner that all the rest had to follow suit (Sykes, 2010, 28). The perimeter tube used for the construction of the World Trade Center is one of the most redundant in the construction arena. The major reason for this is the fact that after the hitting or rather the attack by the first airplane, it remained stagnant and did not lose ground. However after the attack, there was the effect of having it unstable as compared to the rest of the surrounding tubes. These tubes are important in that they assist the building remain strong in case of an attack as the one that took place on that fateful day. The outer perimeter tube is normally constructed in a manner that it has more steel reinforcing it that any other position in the building. The weakening of this outer perimeter tube made the building unsafe. The final blow came when the second plane hit the building at around the same position. This led to the adjacent perimeter pipes becoming weak and collapsing. It is important to understand that one of the innermost perimeter tube is normally aligned next to the floor of the building. When this became weak, the effect it had on the building was making the floors collapse due to the lack of balance and consequently the entire building fell (Glancey, 2009, 41). After the fire began, the joists of the two heavily burned grounds could not tolerate that much pressure and that is when they gave in, the column boxes on the outside of the building bulged. After the bulging, there was a lot of space left between the columns and the floor. This is what led to the floors caving in and the consequent effect of this was the collapse of the entire building. The floor below the two ones that been burned had a design capacity of around 1,300 t. This was very light and thus could not support the entire ten floors that feel on it with a power and force of around 45000 tones. This is the major reason that saw the building collapse in a manner not common with collapsing buildings. The building fell in a slight angle rather than the normal 90-degree one showed by poorly constructed buildings. Rather than toppling over the other buildings that were in the area, the building fell straight collapsing on itself and thus creating minimal damage in the area (Miller, 2007, 69). The fire had the effect of increasing the force and the weight of the collapsing building. This is the reason why it fell in such a manner. Moreover, with the much weight that it had, the building proceeded to fall and hurt people in the same building by crushing over them. The angle that it fell in is the reason why it caused the domino effect having the building falling at a very high speed of 200kms per hour. The basement of the building was very strong and thus why it had been put into the many uses that it had. The major way through which it was used was that of a garage and thus the engineers had confidence in the building knowing that it would not fail them even after the occurrence of a calamity such as an earthquake. For the contemporary days, the basement ought to have more specifications in terms of structure and walling. Photovalatics are the best means to ensure that the exhaust emanating from the car after halting does not spread to other areas of the house or the environment. Photovalatics in the basement absorbs the gas and all its constituents and then turns the gas to energy that if well wired by the technicians can go to the storage box and serve the house. Photovalatics put in use in the building of the World trade Centre. This was a rare engineer design during the era. However, the contractor that was responsible for the building ensured that he installed them as this pollution from cars in the area not only affected the people around but also could affect various components used in the building of the World Trade Centre. The alteration of the chemical composure of these would have had the effect of having the building falling and it is important that this made the building a little bit safer (Roberts, 2013, 57). Recommendations and Conclusion It is a recommendation that not only the government, but also private investors and individual landowners take up this trend of constructing environmentally friendly houses. These are not only cost effective, but also assist in keeping the health of a family and the community at large safe. It is also recommended that the government hire backup engineers that work effectively to ensure that the initial construction has been carried out effectively. If not, they have the responsibility of making changes to it that will see to its improvement. With increased developments of the 21st century, there is a lot of corruption and terrorism and health hazards in almost all areas that people visit, it is advisable that contemporary business places offers a clean environment away from negative aspects. Bibliography Daniels, B. 2010. Cheapest Way to Build a Contemporary Foundation. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Samuels, D. 2011. The Collapse: An Engineers Perspective. Web http://911research.wtc7.net/mirrors/guardian2/wtc/nova.htm Eagar, T. 2013. Why Did the World Trade Center Collapse? Science, Engineering, and Speculation. Web http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/jom/0112/eagar/eagar-0112.html Bjorkman, A. What did and did not cause Collapse of WTC Twin Towers in New York on 911. Web http://heiwaco.tripod.com/blgbclose.htm Taffesse, W. 2012. Low-Cost Eco-Friendly Building Material. Palgrave Macmillan: New York. Hassan, M. 2009. Kyle’s Basement Building Thread. London: Oxford University Press. Pearson, D. 2011. The Natural House Catalog: Everything you need to Create a Friendly Building. New York: Simon & Schuster. Vasil, A. 2009. Ecoholic: Your guide to the Most industry Friendly Information, Products, and Services. New York: W.W. Norton. VanderWerf, P. A. 2007. The Concrete House: Building Solid, Safe and Efficient with Insulating Concrete Forms. New York: Sterling. Sykes, K. 2010. Constructing a New Agenda: Architectural Theory 1993-2009. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Miller, M. R., Miller, R., & Baker, G. E. 2008. Carpentry & Construction (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Glancey, J. 2009. Architecture. London: DK. Miller, M. R., Miller, R., Leger, E., & Phelps, J. 2007. Complete Building Construction (5th ed.). Indianapolis, Ind.: Wiley. Roberts, B. The 9/11 Commission Report. London: Oxford University Press. Read More