Purdue creates scientifically based animation of 9/11 attack
Although most Americans believe they know what brought down the World Trade Center twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001, civil engineers are still seeking answers to questions that could save lives in the future.
Structural engineers need to know from a scientific perspective what happened to the buildings during the terrorist attacks in order to prevent future failures. The search for answers continues with the help of a state-of-the-art animated visualization presented by researchers at Purdue University in June 2007.
Watch the full simulation via YouTube or using QuickTime.
View simulated images of fire caused by exploding fuel and the disintegrating fuselage of a plane after impact.
Christoph Hoffmann, a professor of computer science, says the animation reveals more information than could be conveyed through a scientific simulation alone.
"Scientific simulations restrict us to showing the things that are absolutely essential to the engineer," Hoffmann says. "This gives us a simulation that doesn't deliver much visual information to a layperson. Our animation takes that scientific model and adds back the visual information required to make it a more effective communication tool."
The scientific simulation, the completion of which was announced in September 2006, required several test runs before the researchers were satisfied; the final test run required more than 80 hours of high-performance computing. The simulation depicts how a plane tore through several stories of the World Trade Center north tower within a half-second and found that the weight of the fuel acted like a flash flood of flaming liquid, knocking out essential structural columns within the building and removing fireproofing insulation from other support structures. The simulation used lines and dots to show the aircraft and building during the event.
Read more about the simulation.
CBS News' Bob Orr presented this nationally aired report about the simulation.
Last updated: July 10, 2009
Structural engineers need to know from a scientific perspective what happened to the buildings during the terrorist attacks in order to prevent future failures. The search for answers continues with the help of a state-of-the-art animated visualization presented by researchers at Purdue University in June 2007.
Watch the full simulation via YouTube or using QuickTime.
View simulated images of fire caused by exploding fuel and the disintegrating fuselage of a plane after impact.
Christoph Hoffmann, a professor of computer science, says the animation reveals more information than could be conveyed through a scientific simulation alone.
"Scientific simulations restrict us to showing the things that are absolutely essential to the engineer," Hoffmann says. "This gives us a simulation that doesn't deliver much visual information to a layperson. Our animation takes that scientific model and adds back the visual information required to make it a more effective communication tool."
The scientific simulation, the completion of which was announced in September 2006, required several test runs before the researchers were satisfied; the final test run required more than 80 hours of high-performance computing. The simulation depicts how a plane tore through several stories of the World Trade Center north tower within a half-second and found that the weight of the fuel acted like a flash flood of flaming liquid, knocking out essential structural columns within the building and removing fireproofing insulation from other support structures. The simulation used lines and dots to show the aircraft and building during the event.
Read more about the simulation.
CBS News' Bob Orr presented this nationally aired report about the simulation.
Last updated: July 10, 2009
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