Blender Demolition - Case Study: WTC (VIDEO)

Mr.Herbert

Graduate Poster
Mr.Herbert
Joined
Feb 23, 2007
Messages
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This is a pretty interesting video that was created for the collapse of the WTC.





Demo video of the development of the Demolition feature for Blender 2.5x/2.6.

This test case scenario needed 10 minutes per frame to calculate geometry deformations and additional 5 minutes to render the image. The test system was an Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition with 3,33 GHz, 12 virtual cores and 12 GB of RAM.
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Darn. A missed opportunity to show us how the structural steel core, which they modeled, was crushed top down at the rate of 6.5 floors per second.
 
ergo said:
Darn. A missed opportunity to show us how the structural steel core, which they modeled, was crushed top down at the rate of 6.5 floors per second.
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Except lots of it stayed standing for some time after the collapse eh?
 
ergo said:
Darn. A missed opportunity to show us how the structural steel core, which they modeled, was crushed top down at the rate of 6.5 floors per second.
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Perhaps you could show us your model that demonstrates CD? For example, where the charges were put, where the detonators were, what type of explosives were used, etc etc.
 
Blender is "is a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software product used for creating animated films, visual effects, interactive 3D applications or video games. Blender's features include 3D modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, rigging and skinning, fluid and smoke simulation, particle simulation, animating, rendering, video editing and compositing." (WP)

It is geared towards graphic rendering of physical objects in motion, not towards full-fledged Finite Element Analysis.
It is a tool for artists, not for engineers. Keep that in mind.

As far as I can see, we have no information about how the building structure was modelled by Kai, the author of the "Demolition" extension. It seems that he can play with general parameters pertaining to stiffness and other properties of structural elements, but did not assing individual properties to individual structurak elements. It seems that he simplified the structure VERY much. For example, the floor joists seem not to have any discernible structure. I believe his model overestimates the strength of many connections, in particular column-to-columns and floor-to-column.

We have no information how he modelled collapse initiation.


The video is a demonstration of the "Demolition" extension, and not meant to be a realistic rendering of the collapse sequence. It's good enough for artists who ask themselves "can I create a collapse video that looks nice for my audience" and not made for the forensic engineer who asks "what brough this real-world building down."



Not sure what's to be debated now in this forum...
 
Oystein said:
Blender is "is a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software product used for creating animated films, visual effects, interactive 3D applications or video games. Blender's features include 3D modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, rigging and skinning, fluid and smoke simulation, particle simulation, animating, rendering, video editing and compositing." (WP)

It is geared towards graphic rendering of physical objects in motion, not towards full-fledged Finite Element Analysis.
It is a tool for artists, not for engineers. Keep that in mind.

As far as I can see, we have no information about how the building structure was modelled by Kai, the author of the "Demolition" extension. It seems that he can play with general parameters pertaining to stiffness and other properties of structural elements, but did not assing individual properties to individual structurak elements. It seems that he simplified the structure VERY much. For example, the floor joists seem not to have any discernible structure. I believe his model overestimates the strength of many connections, in particular column-to-columns and floor-to-column.

We have no information how he modelled collapse initiation.


The video is a demonstration of the "Demolition" extension, and not meant to be a realistic rendering of the collapse sequence. It's good enough for artists who ask themselves "can I create a collapse video that looks nice for my audience" and not made for the forensic engineer who asks "what brough this real-world building down."



Not sure what's to be debated now in this forum...
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Good info. I am still curious where ergo would put the explosives in the rendering.
Edited by kmortis: 
Removed personal comment
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Oystein said:
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Autodesk also has a few finite analysis products on their roster including Robot Structural Analysis and Algor Simulation. They're mostly for design development applications though, so I'm not sure how relevant they could be made for something the scale of WTC but I know the former is used for full scale design applications. The latter I think is for smaller details & product design but I've never tried using it to see.
 
Grizzly Bear said:
Autodesk also has a few finite analysis products on their roster including Robot Structural Analysis and Algor Simulation. They're mostly for design development applications though, so I'm not sure how relevant they could be made for something the scale of WTC but I know the former is used for full scale design applications. The latter I think is for smaller details & product design but I've never tried using it to see.
Click to expand...

I'd be surprised if that could handle the dynamics of a collapse that takes many of the structural elements beyond their specifications.
 
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