The Pentagon Building Performance Report [Paperback]

Pentagon Building Performance Study Team (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0784406383 | ISBN-13: 978-0784406380

On the afternoon of September 11, 2001, ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute established a building performance study team to examine the structural damage inflicted on the Pentagon by the crash. The members of the team reviewed available information on the structure, crash loading, and eyewitness accounts and drew on focused assessments by others. After performing impact, static and thermal analyses, the BPS team made recommendations for future design and construction and suggestions on areas where research and development is needed. Their findings are disclosed in the Pentagon Building Performance Report. With over 150 full color illustrative photos, diagrams and tables, The Pentagon Building Performance Report provides a thorough assessment of the structural system that prevented extensive collapse of the building. From the redundant and alternative load paths of the unique beam and girder framing system, to the ability of the structure to absorb excess energy, the Pentagon withstood both structural and thermal trauma better than would have been expected. Complete with a chronological description of the events leading to impact, the crash and its subsequent effect on the structural system, this report reveals exactly how and why the Pentagon structure performed so well on the morning of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Product Details

• Paperback: 100 pages
• Publisher: Amer Society of Civil Engineers (January 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0784406383
• ISBN-13: 978-0784406380
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,551,225 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Pentagon Building Performance Report, January 31, 2003

By 

Anne Elizabeth Powell (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pentagon Building Performance Report (Paperback)

The Pentagon Building Performance Report--the report of the building performance study team assembled by the American Society of Civil Engineers to investigate the structural performance of the Pentagon during and immediately following the September 11 terrorist attack--has far-reaching implications not only for the building design professions but for the general public as well. Released on January 23, the report explains precisely how the Pentagon's resilient structural system substantially mitigated the damage, number of casualties and fatalities, and extent of collapse that resulted from the impact of the aircraft and the ensuing fires. This structural system saved hundreds--if not thousands--of lives.

Authored by the six individuals who constituted the core Pentagon building performance study team, the report is a comprehensive, thoroughly detailed book--the product of an exhaustive examination and analysis of the building's performance during and immediately after the terrorist attack. The Pentagon survived this event better than would have been expected, and the report explains precisely how it did so. It describes the structural features and mechanisms that contributed to the Pentagon's resiliency and it explains how these features and mechanisms performed during the impact and ensuing fires.

The information gleaned from this report argues eloquently for incorporating structural resiliency into the design and construction of buildings that are required to resist progressive collapse--that is, the failure of a structure in which relatively localized damage to structural elements leads to a general breakdown in the construction.

This book is a must read for those working in the engineering and architecture professions and provides extremely valuable information for the public at large.