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The Khan Lecture Series honors Dr. Fazlur Rahman Khan’s legacy of excellence in structural engineering and architecture, and is organized by Dan. M. Frangopol, Fazlur Rahman Khan Endowed Chair of Structural Engineering and Architecture, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, ATLSS Center, Lehigh University...click here for more information
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Zdeněk P. Bažant
McCormick Institute Professor & WP Murphy Professor, Northwestern University, Evanston
Friday, February 26, 2010, 4:10 pm. Sinclair Laboratory Auditorium, Lehigh University
"Progress Engendered by Collapses of Record Setting Structures: Malpasset Dam, World Trade Center Towers and KB Bridge in Palau"
When built, these were the tallest and slenderest arch dam, the tallest building, and the prestressed box girder of world-record span. The mechanisms of collapse of these structures are clarified. The size effect is shown to have been an important factor in the 1959 failure of the Malpasset Dam. Although indisputably the immediate cause of failure was the movement of abutment, the size effect must have caused that the tolerable foundation movement was only about 25% of that predicted in design by the classical analysis based on constant material strength. Second, the disputed causes of the twin WTC towers collapse in New York on 9/11/01 are discussed...click here for more information
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