EXPLOSIVE DAMAGE ASSESSMENT OF CIRCULAR OFFICE TOWER
As part of a company-funded research effort, Engineering Analysis Inc. has recently carried out a preliminary study of the blast effects of a large truck bomb explosion on a circular office tower. The structure consisted of 49 stories and was 614 feet in height, with a diameter of 144 feet. The large tanker truck, containing 12,000 pounds of explosives, was parked at a distance of 26 feet from the face of the tower base, as depicted in Figures 1 and 2. The detonation of the explosive produced a blast wave which propagated outward from the truck as shown in Figures 3 through 7, for overpressures ranging from 500 psi down to 20 psi. The resulting damage to the circular tower is depicted in Figures 8 and 9.