Impact of Aircraft Wing against World Trade Center Columns

Abstract

The problem of interest is the collision between the wing of the aircraft and the WTC columns. This is quantified in two ways: by an analytical method and by FEA simulation. The first involved simple static and somewhat more complex dynamic patterns. The FEA approach used moderate size models, which had some features not employed before. The real question behind this work was if a significant amount of fuel was necessary in the wing to make it cut the columns. The question is answered by conducting the analyses for the outboard part of the wing that had rather thin skin, 4 and 2 mm respectively and negligible fuel content.