On June 24, 2021, the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside Florida collapsed without warning. The initial collapse occurred outside of the building tower, in the pool deck region. Seven minutes later, the central portion of the building collapsed; the eastern portion of the building collapsed quickly after that. The western section of the building remained standing. Professor Lehman worked with an investigative journalist team at the Miami Herald led by Sarah Blaskey to investigate the partial collapse using tools and technologies she had developed through her research on seismic evaluation of existing buildings and design of new concrete connections. The primary objective of the investigation is to understand how initial damage in a pool deck could lead to partial collapse of this flat-plate cast-in-place reinforced concrete structure with an eye towards improving evaluation methods for these structures.

This talk will address the building collapse using:

  • The timeline of the collapse as reported by witnesses.
  • Building damage photographs and videos.
  • Building plans and repair drawings and permits
  • Advanced nonlinear finite element analyses of the Level 1 slab to investigate possible initiation points and progression of damage.

     

Learning Objectives

  • Fundamental approach to forensic engineering of damaged and collapsed structures
  • Uses and limits of photographs and video to identify final failure modes and explore possible damage/collapse scenarios.
  • Use of high-resolution nonlinear analysis with fundamental understanding of structural behavior to investigate initiation of failure and progression of collapse.

     

1 CE credit will be issued for this webinar. 

Pricing

  • February 2023 DM Members - $25.00
  • February 2023 DM Nonmembers - $45.00

Webinar Registration