Progressive Collapse—An Implosion Contractor’s Stock in Trade
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 20, Issue 4
Abstract
When designing a building intended to be resistant to progressive collapse, it is instructive to consider this problem from the point of view of an implosion contractor who regularly demolishes buildings through explosives-induced progressive failure. All buildings want to fall down, but are prevented from doing so through their structural columns, walls and transfer girders. Innumerable ergs of potential energy are just waiting to be released. The implosion contractor creates a progressive collapse by releasing this energy through the sequential explosive removal of key structural supports, allowing gravity to do the remaining work, simultaneously using the minimum amount of explosives, creating the maximum amount of fragmentation, and minimizing the potential fly of debris. In this paper, we will explore several building structural systems and how their implosion has historically been achieved, comparing the amount of effort required in each system to affect an implosion as related to the susceptibility of that type of building to progressive collapse and identifying those types that lend themselves to it. The building structural systems described represent actual case studies. By comparison of different systems from the implosion contractor’s perspective, the design engineer will gain unique knowledge about systems that are inherently resistant to progressive collapse.
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Acknowledgments
All the case studies presented herein were projects performed by Controlled Demolition Inc. (CDI). The writers thank CDI for its permission to use these case studies for this article. Special thanks to Stacey Loizeaux for tracking down the old photographs from CDI’s files. The drawings in Figs. 3, 6, and 8 were prepared by Sunyoung Hong and Mathew Haberling of WJE, whose efforts are much appreciated. The schematic collapse sequence presented in Fig. 4 was made by Thomas C. Moore for publication in Ref. 1. Mr. Moore’s permission to use that schematic free of charge is gratefully acknowledged.
References
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). (2002). “Minimum design loads for buildings and other structures.” ASCE 7-02, Reston, Va., Chapter C1.4.
Basham, Wright, Fergusson, Moy (2005). “Design of buildings to resist progressive collapse.” Unified Facilities Criteria document.
Bazant, Z. P., and Zhou, Y. (2002). “Why did the World Trade Center collapse?—Simple analysis.” J. Eng. Mech., 128(1), 2–6.
Blanchard, B. (2002). “A history of explosive demolition in America.” ⟨http://www.implosionworld.com/industryhistory.htm⟩.
Loizeaux, J. M., and Loizeaux, D. K. (1995). “Demolition by implosion.” Sci. Am., October, 146–153.
The MultiHazard Mitigation Council of the National Institute of Building Services. (2003). Prevention of progressive collapse: Report on the national workshop and recommendations for future efforts.
Sofge, E. (2005). “5 4 3 2 1… The meticulous science and delicate art of blowing stuff up.” Popular Mechanics.
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© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Apr 14, 2006
Accepted: May 18, 2006
Published online: Nov 1, 2006
Published in print: Nov 2006
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