7 World Trade Center Collapse Investigation

2008–2011 | New York NY

Client Greenbaum Rowe Smith & Davis LLP / GKAR Partners
Project Leader and Structural Engineering Expert Guy Nordenson and Associates
Collaborators Dr. Anthony Ingraffea, Dr. Joseph Yura, Dr. Charles Kircher, Dr. Colin Bailey, Dr. Fred Mowrer, Dr. Jose Torero, Karagozian & Case, Arup Fire Engineering Practice

Guy Nordenson and Associates was the strategic leader of a team of engineering experts involved in litigation related to the collapse of 7 World Trade Center, the 47-story steel-framed office building that collapsed on 11 September 2001 as a result of fires that were initiated by the impact of debris from the terrorist attacks. In addition to coordinating the research conducted by experts in fire protection engineering, structural fire engineering, structural engineering, fracture mechanics, and dynamic impact analysis among other fields, GNA evaluated the structural code compliance of the building, analyzed the local connection failure mechanism and column buckling that likely resulted from the effects of the fire, and performed a staged nonlinear global collapse analysis to study the behavior of the building after the initial local failure and determine how it progressed to a catastrophic collapse.