Impact of the Boeing 767 Aircraft into the World Trade Center

• Published in: Journal of engineering mechanics Vol. 131; no. 10; pp. 1066 - 1072
• Main Authors: Karim, Mohammed R, Fatt, Michelle S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Reston, VA American Society of Civil Engineers 01-10-2005
• Subjects: Exact sciences and technology; Fracture mechanics (crack, fatigue, damage...); Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Physics; Solid mechanics; Structural and continuum mechanics; TECHNICAL PAPERS; USA, New York, New York; Aircraft; New York; New York City; Buildings; Thin shell; high-rise; Simulation; Terrorism; Columns; Modeling; Box beam; Box model; Column; Cylindrical shell; Kinetic energy; Aircraft; High rise building; Fuselage; Mechanical shock; Damaging
• DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9399(2005)131:10(1066)
• EISSN: 1943-7889
• ISSN: 0733-9399

A numerical simulation of the aircraft impact into the exterior columns of the World Trade Center (WTC) was done using LS-DYNA. For simplification, the fuselage was modeled as a thin-walled cylinder, the wings were modeled as box beams with a fuel pocket, and the engines were represented as rigid cylinders. The exterior columns of the WTC were represented as box beams. Actual masses, material properties and dimensions of the Boeing 767 aircraft and the exterior columns of the WTC were used in this analysis. It was found that about 46% of the initial kinetic energy of the aircraft was used to damage columns. The minimum impact velocity of the aircraft to just penetrate the exterior columns would be
130
m∕s
. It was also found that a Boeing 767 traveling at top speed would not penetrate exterior columns of the WTC if the columns were thicker than
20
mm
.