Dynamic Force Effect on Collapse of L'ambiance Plaza

Abstract

All the technical papers written about the April 23, 1987, collapse of L'Ambiance Plaza, Bridgeport, Conn., have treated it by static-analysis methods. It was established that a 12-ton jack was used just prior to the collapse to plumb the building; however, no one attempted to link the dynamic load generated by the force of the jack to the dynamic vulnerability of the lift-slab structures during the construction stage. This paper is an attempt to show that the dynamic vulnerability of the lift slab, combined with the dynamic load such as the one generated by the 12-ton jack, could have caused the dynamic instability of the structure, which led to the collapse.