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6 Hours from Catastrophe – The Hartford Civic Center Collapse
In 6 Hours from Catastrophe – The Hartford Civic Center Collapse, you'll learn ...
- The design errors that doomed the Civic Center Arena roof from its beginning
- Procedural loopholes which allowed flaws in the complex arena roof truss design to go undetected
- How over confidence in the results from an improperly applied computer program caused the Structural Engineer to accept roof deflections that greatly conflicted with his own predicted values
Overview
Preview a portion of this course before purchasing it.
Credit: 2 PDH
Length: 23 pages
Just after 4 AM on January 18, 1978, the entire roof of the 3-year old Hartford, CT Civic Center Arena suddenly collapsed and fell onto the seating areas and floor over 80 feet below. 6 hours earlier, the arena had been filled with nearly 5,000 persons for a college basketball game between local rivals, another sports event was scheduled 15 hours after the collapse. Had the failure occurred a few hours earlier, the number killed when the 2,900 ton roof fell could have exceeded the toll from the nine-eleven terrorist attacks.
The 2½ acre roof was designed as an octahedron, 2 layer open span space truss system supported by one column in each of the four corners. Although the structure was designed and computer modeled in 1971 to have an ultimate strength of 140 pounds per square foot total combined load, the roof collapsed after an 8.8 inch snowfall under a total combined load of only 67-73 lbs. per square foot.
Included among the many causes of the collapse that will be covered is the inadequacy of the computing and software technology of the time to properly model the stress in such a complex, statically indeterminate system and the un-warranted confidence the Engineer placed in its results. The study of this case history spotlights the potential great harm that could have resulted from the technical and procedural failures as well as the ethical and communication breakdowns which all contributed to the roof’s progressive and ultimate total collapse.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:
- Identify warning signs of the roof’s overstressed condition that appeared during construction and were ignored.
- Explain the space-frame stress behavior and design criteria that were available to the designer but not applied to the project.
- Describe modern space-truss construction techniques that enable lighter, stronger, and larger structures.
- Summarize the history, development, and widespread contemporary application of the space-frame truss system.
Certificate of Completion
You will be able to immediately print a certificate of completion after passing a multiple-choice quiz consisting of 15 questions. PDH credits are not awarded until the course is completed and quiz is passed.
| This course is applicable to professional engineers in: | ||
| Alabama (P.E.) | Alaska (P.E.) | Arkansas (P.E.) |
| Delaware (P.E.) | District of Columbia (P.E.) | Florida (P.E. Area of Practice) |
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| Illinois (S.E.) | Indiana (P.E.) | Iowa (P.E.) |
| Kansas (P.E.) | Kentucky (P.E.) | Louisiana (P.E.) |
| Maine (P.E.) | Maryland (P.E.) | Michigan (P.E.) |
| Minnesota (P.E.) | Mississippi (P.E.) | Missouri (P.E.) |
| Montana (P.E.) | Nebraska (P.E.) | Nevada (P.E.) |
| New Hampshire (P.E.) | New Jersey (P.E.) | New Mexico (P.E.) |
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| Ohio (P.E. Self-Paced) | Oklahoma (P.E.) | Oregon (P.E.) |
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| Vermont (P.E.) | Virginia (P.E.) | West Virginia (P.E.) |
| Wisconsin (P.E.) | Wyoming (P.E.) | |
Preview a portion of this course before purchasing it.
Credit: 2 PDH
Length: 23 pages
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