Citation

LaMalva KJ, Barnett JR, Dusenberry DO. J. Fire Prot. Eng. 2009; 19(4): 261-274.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1042391509105596

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article describes an analysis of the structural collapse that occurred in World Trade Center (WTC) building 5 due to fire exposure on 11 September 2001. It is hypothesized that the steel column-tree assembly failed during the heating phase of the fire. A failure analysis is performed to determine the response of the portion of the building frame that collapsed during the fire ignited by falling debris from the WTC towers. Results from a finite element, thermal-stress model confirm the column-tree failure hypothesis. Based on this model, the authors conclude that the catastrophic, progressive structural collapse occurred ∼2 hours into the fire exposure.