学位英语

Can Buildings Be Designed to Resist Terrorist Attack?

In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, structural engineers are trying hard to solve a question that a month ago would have been completely unthinkable: Can building be designed to withstand catastrophic blasts inflicted by terrorists?

Ten days after the terrorist attacks on the twin towers, structural engineers from the University at Buffalo and the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER) headquartered at UB traveled to ground zero as part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation. Visiting the site as part of an MCEER reconnaissance visit, they spent two days beginning the task of formulating ideas about how to design such structures and to search for clues on how to do so in buildings that were damaged, but still are standing.

“Our objective in visiting ground zero was to go and look at the buildings surrounding the World Trade Center, those buildings that are still standing, but that sustained damage4,” said M. Bruneau, Ph. D. “Our immediate hope is that we can develop a better understanding as to why those buildings remain standing, while our long-term goal is to see whether earthquake engineering technologies can be married to existing technologies to achieve enhanced performance of buildings in the event of terrorist attacks,” he added.

Photographs taken by the investigators demonstrate in startling detail the monumental damage inflicted on the World Trade Center towers and buildings in the vicinity. One building a block away from the towers remains standing, but was badly damaged. “This building is many meters away from the World Trade Center and yet we see a column there that used to be part of that building,” explained A. Whittaker, Ph. D. “The column became a missile that shot across the road, through the window and through the floor.”

The visit to the area also revealed some surprises, according to the engineers. For example, the floor framing system in one of the adjacent buildings was quite rugged, allowing floors that were pierced by tons of falling debris to remain intact. “Highly redundant ductile framing systems may provide a simple, but robust strategy for blast resistance,” he added. Other strategies may include providing alternate paths for gravity loads in the event that a load-bearing column fails. “We also need a better understanding of the mechanism of collapse,” said A. Whittaker. “We need to find out what causes a building to collapse and how you can predict it. ”

建筑设计能使建筑抵御恐怖袭击吗?

在世贸中心遭受恐怖袭击后一段时间内，建筑工程师们试图解决一个在一个月前人们从未想过的问题：建筑设计能使建筑具有抵御恐怖袭击的性能吗?

恐怖分子袭击世贸中心10天后，布法罗大学的建筑工程师和总部设在UB多学科中心的地震工程研究所作为国家科学基金出资的一个项目的一部分来到了世贸中心被毁现场。参观了地震研究所部分人员考察的地点，他们用了2天时间开始将如何设计抵抗袭击的建筑的想法系统化并且在那些已损坏但未倒塌的建筑中寻找如何设计的线索。

“我们考察被毁现场的目的是去看看世贸中心周围的建筑，那些被损坏但没倒塌的建筑。” M. Brunean博士说。“我们当前的愿望是能对那些建筑没倒塌的原因有更好的认识，而我们的长远目标是看能否将抗震技术与现有建筑技术结合以提高在恐怖袭击事件中建筑的性能。”他补充说。

研究者拍摄的照片以惊人的细节展示了恐怖袭击使世贸中心及其附近建筑造成的严重损坏，一幢离世贸中心一街区远的建筑虽被严重损坏但未倒塌。“这幢建筑离世贸中心数英里远，然而我们在被毁现场还看到过去曾是其一部分的一个圆柱。”A. Whittaker博士说，“这个圆柱充当了一枚发射物，跨过了道路，穿过了窗户和楼层。”

据工程师们说，在被毁现场的考察也发现了一些令人惊奇的事。例如，附近一幢建筑的楼板骨架系统非常坚固，这使那些被成吨的残片击穿的楼板得以完整无缺。“高度的，充分的伸展的骨架系统可以为具有抵爆炸性能提供简单而有效的方法他补充说。其他方法可以包括在承重部分失去作用时为重力的下落提供多种途径。“我们也需要更好地认识倒塌的过程。”A. Whittaker说，“我们需要找到是什么引起建筑倒塌和如何对其进行预测。”

A. Reinhorn博士特别提到“在过去，地震造成的震动使许多建筑物倒塌。它引起动力的反应、极强的压力和建筑结构部分的变形。抗震性能设计的发展也许可直接适用于爆炸工程和抗袭击性能的设计，我们在UB任务的一部分是吸收这些解决方法并找到未知的新方法。

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（责任编辑：zyc）

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